Italy is one of the leading marble sourcing and quarrying country in the world and exports these marble types globally.
White marble statues used to be colorful.
Painted replica of augustus of prima porta statue with pigments reconstructed for the tarraco viva 2014 festival cc by sa 3 0.
While the image of spotless marble adonises and aphrodites are prevalent in today s culture back then the situation was very different some appear as colorful as circus clowns.
Augustus of prima porta the famous figure of the emperor standing triumphantly with one hand raised.
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.
Not so to the greeks who thought of their gods in living color and portrayed them that way too.
Original statue in white marble 1 st century ad.
The myth of the white marble started during the renaissance when we first began unearthing ancient statues.
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.
Rather than left as blank white marble the statue would have had bronzed skin brown hair and a fire engine red toga.
Ancient greece and rome were really colorful we learn.
The arabescato marble is an off white or white colored marble category that usually displays a dark brown or black veining design.
To us classical antiquity means white marble.
But in reality for much of human existence colored sculpture was the rule and the norm.
The ancients loved color.
The temples that housed them were in color also.
By observing how animals used color in order to attract and repel early humans set out to color themselves.
This includes the 1st century a d.
This statue was originally painted.
Ancient greek and roman statues weren t originally white they were in glorious color.
Most of them had lost their original paint after centuries of exposure to the elements.
Cc by sa 3 0 by ryan stone.
Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material.
I have seen so many exhibitions of greek and roman statues but i never never never even imagined any old sculpture being in color.