On Wednesday 12 April 2006 9:10 pm, Susan Carroll-Clark wrote: > Greetings-- > > Carolyn Kayta Barrows wrote: > >> Sculptors likely did not have live models posing for them as they > >> chipped away at the stone; even when they are being realistic, there > >> was always the challenge of representing what the fabric does in > >> stone, a very different medium. > > > > At least they were closer to the real thing than we are. And, > > presumably, they saw a real one at some point. > > That's why sculpture does have its attractions as a source. You just > have to know and work with the caveats, as you would any source, and > never assume they're being photographic-perfect in their > representations. Most of the twelfth century sculptures have a fair bit > of stylization, so you have to ask yourself what's accurate, what's > stylized, and what is limited by the limits of the medium itself. > > One of the things I find fascinating about a lot of medieval sculpture > (and apparently, a fair bit of the classical stuff as well) is that it > was painted!
Yes, indeed. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is built on the model of an ancient Greek temple, complete with sculptures in friezes around the walls, just under the roof eaves. Their sculptures are painted--bright primary colors--reds, blues. Flesh tones. It's a very different aesthetic than we're accustomed to, knowing only the paintless statues as they've come down to us, but once you get used to the idea, it seems quite natural. I've seen a number of medieval sculptures that still retained noticeable amounts of pigment. The main surprise about the sculptures I've seen is that the favorite color for the Virgin Mary's tunic is red, usually with a dark blue mantle (that scheme shows up in minatures and paintings of the period as well, now that I think about it). > I have no idea of whether these particular examples were > painted, but boy, wouldn't that have added an interesting layer of > detail.... Yes, it would. Of course, there would still be art interpretation issues, much as there are for miniatures (e.g., was this color chosen for its symbolism? or because it was an easily available paint pigment? or because people actually wore it?) But I always prefer more information to less, even when the new information raises more questions than it answers. -- Cathy Raymond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "I'm starting to like the cut of this man's gibberish." --General Fillmore (from "The Tick," episode 2) _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
