Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals most commonly calcite or dolomite marble is typically not foliated although there are exceptions in geology the term marble refers to metamorphosed limestone but its use in stonemasonry more broadly encompasses unmetamorphosed limestone.
White marble statues used to be colorful.
At the time he was a graduate student at new york university s institute of fine arts and like most people he thought of greek and roman statues as objects of pure white marble.
But in reality for much of human existence colored sculpture was the rule and the norm.
Rather than left as blank white marble the statue would have had bronzed skin brown hair and a fire engine red toga.
I have seen so many exhibitions of greek and roman statues but i never never never even imagined any old sculpture being in color.
Finding out about this is pretty great but i m so used to white marbled statues it just doesn t seem right to see them colored.
Original statue in white marble 1 st century ad.
Ancient greece and rome were really colorful we learn.
Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material.
Painted replica of augustus of prima porta statue with pigments reconstructed for the tarraco viva 2014 festival cc by sa 3 0.
Italy is one of the leading marble sourcing and quarrying country in the world and exports these marble types globally.
This includes the 1st century a d.
The myth of the white marble started during the renaissance when we first began unearthing ancient statues.
Most of them had lost their original paint after centuries of exposure to the elements.
To us classical antiquity means white marble.
By observing how animals used color in order to attract and repel early humans set out to color themselves.
Cc by sa 3 0 by ryan stone.
This marble is sourced from carrara in italy.
The arabescato marble is an off white or white colored marble category that usually displays a dark brown or black veining design.
This statue was originally painted.
The ancients loved color.
Ancient greek and roman statues weren t originally white they were in glorious color.
The temples that housed them were in color also.
The white marble or the monochromatic depiction of three dimensional form has been the rule and the norm for nearly 700 years.