Archaeology of Colour. Technical Art History Studies in Greek and Roman Painting and Polychromy, 2024, 450 p. -

Ancient polychromy speaks a language of “the visible” and “the invisible”, through signs of pigments, brushstrokes and forms. Another reminder of our classical past, colour is an inherent component of artistic creation, inspiration and imagination. New sophisticated technologies, as well as the development of interdisciplinary studies over these past decades, have stimulated the collection and evaluation of numerous scientific data from in-situ investigation of polychrome and painted documents, and have challenged our understanding of the complexity and function of ancient painting materials and techniques. The present volume is another contribution to the ongoing exploration of the rich history of colour in the classical world; an exploration which builds on previous knowledge and opens up new horizons for a more extended understanding of the aesthetics and meaning of Greek and Roman art. It includes fifteen papers that move from Archaic and Classical Greece to the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and deal with colour on monumental architecture, marble statues and reliefs, wooden and terracotta statuettes, stone sarcophagi, paintings on stone and plaster, and pigments as raw materials.

ARCHAIC / CLASSICAL PERIOD
- Physicochemical Characterization of Colours and Plasters of an Archaic Sarcophagus from Chiliomodi, Corinth (Y. Maniatis et al.)
- The Revelation of the Decorative Pattern on the Coffered Ceiling of the Porch of the Karyatids in the Erechtheion (G. Frantzi et al.)
- Technical Investigation of the Polychromy of the Northwest Raking Sima of the Parthenon (E. Aggelakopoulou et al.)
- Two Polychrome Ionic Capitals from the Athenian Agora: Documentation and Experimental Reconstruction (V. Brinkmann, U. Koch-Brinkmann, H. Piening)

LATE CLASSICAL / HELLENISTIC PERIOD
- A Pilot Technological Investigation of the Aigai (Vergina) Hunt Frieze: Retrieving Ancient Colours, Rethinking Modern Reconstructions (H. Brecoulaki, A. G. Karydas, G. Verri, K. Tsampa)
- The Figured Stelai from the “Great Tumulus” of Aigai Revisited: New Findings on the Distribution of Pigments and Aspects of their Iconography (M. Kalaitzi, G. Verri)
- Organic Binders and Painting Techniques of Funerary Wall-paintings from Ancient Macedonia (L. Avlonitou, M. Perla Colombini, A. Lluveras-Tenorio)
- Greek Gilded Wood: an Exceptional Polychrome Peplophoros from Kerch (Musée du Louvre) (B. Bourgeois, V. Jeammet, S. Pagès-Camagna)
- The Spectrum of Skin Colours in Hellenistic Sculptures and Other Media. A wide range with different meanings (C. Blume-Jung)

ROMAN PERIOD
- New Research on the “Monochromes on Marble” from Herculaneum and Pompeii (S. Bracci, R. Iannaccone, S. Lenzi, P. Liverani)
- Identification of Pigments on Ancient Sculptures from the Collections of the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki (P. Adam-Veleni et al.)
- Roman Sarcophagi Use and Reuse: Colour Application Techniques and Ancient Repainting (E. Siotto)

ON COLOURS
- Eclectic Uses of Egyptian Blue in Greek Painting: a Versatile Painting Material (H. Brecoulaki, G. Verri, A.-M. Guimier-Sorbets, L. Avlonitou)
- In Search of Mineral Pigments Described by Theophrastus of Eressos: Cyanus from Scythia, Miltos from Sinope and Ochre from Cyprus (T. Katsaros)
- Did Colour and Colouring in Greek Art Confer Prestige? (E. Walter-Karydi)