Brinkmann statues

[immortal]

What is the general opinion on the Brinkmann reconstructions?
Ive found his depictions of Hoplites most intriguing.

[hoplite14gr]

the first is just one more proof that some Greeks liked to paint their armor.
The second : I thought initially to be evidence of "leather armor" but I am more inclined to think that this might be a spollas.
We had a thread on painted armor I think.

Kind regards

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

Having seen this exhibit and the techniques used to rediscover these ancient pigments i must say i agree with these reconstructions.
































The ancient world was colourful, very colourful.

M.VIB.M.

[MeinPanzer]

What is the general opinion on the Brinkmann reconstructions?
Ive found his depictions of Hoplites most intriguing.

I highly recommend you get a hold of the book "Bunte Götter. Die Farbigkeit antiker Skulptur," which covers the methods used for these reconstructions. They are absolutely solid, and are based on sculptures on which some traces of colour still remain, but on which most paint has faded. I've seen black and white pictures of the stele you've posted on which traces of almost all of the painted features are still visible. On the Alexander Sarcophagus, most of the paint is still visible when viewed up close, albeit badly faded, but it was almost perfectly preserved when originally excavated.

the first is just one more proof that some Greeks liked to paint their armor.
The second : I thought initially to be evidence of "leather armor" but I am more inclined to think that this might be a spollas.
We had a thread on painted armor I think.

Why would it be a spolas? Yellow or orange-yellow is commonly used to depict bronze in ancient art. It's undoubtedly painted to represent bronze.

[Nathan Ross]

Yellow or orange-yellow is commonly used to depict bronze in ancient art. It's undoubtedly painted to represent bronze.

And presumably at least some of the blue colour (on the helmets and greaves, perhaps?) is intended to represent iron. Unless we are to believe that Alexander actually painted his spearhead blue...

- Nathan

[immortal]

Ruben, thanks for the book suggestion. Ive ordered a copy.

I think it's obvious that the cuirass is supposed to be bronze, the shape matches exactly with surviving examples. Either the yellow is representing bronze, or it is a basecoat for a metallic leaf covering.
The blue, I would imagine represents paint rather than Iron. The edging is still yellow, which would suggest an underlying base metal. I don't think iron has the 'spring' of bronze to allow it to be used as greaves in the same way? I may be wrong.

Just to cause some controversy and to add on to Pauls other thread ( ), could the yellow of the T&Y cuirass suggest it is bronze? The bands of decoration could well be gaps in the plates to allow movement.
The green porpax is interesting as is the blue chest decoration picked out on the bell cuirass.

[nikolaos]

Folks,

I'm a big fan of the Brinkmann coloured statues, and think they provide a wonderful insight into the world of the ancient greeks and romans which had quite literally be washed out by time and assumptions.

That said, I'd be very careful about making assumptions about materials based on the colour of paint used. Its my understanding that Brinkmann's methodology included reconstructing the colours from the analysis of the surviving pigments. So, if you look at the first reconstruction, the Aristion grave stele from the late archaic (one of my favourites you see the same blue used for the greaves, his spear shaft, his hat, decoration of his spolas, and so forth.

Similarly, the same yellow appears in the greaves, the spolas, and the hat decoration.

If you look at the other pieces, colours recur in different material contexts (metal, fabric, decoration) which more leads to the more likely conclusion that the palette was limited, and representation is approximate at best.

Have fun!
Cole

[hoplite14gr]

Sorry for late reply.
I had the chance to examine the item closely when it was exibited in Athens Museum.

To me at least is not "rigid enough" to depict metal armor of the period.
It looks more like non metal item to me despite the metallic color.

kind regards

[immortal]

Sorry for late reply.
I had the chance to examine the item closely when it was exibited in Athens Museum.

To me at least is not "rigid enough" to depict metal armor of the period.
It looks more like non metal item to me despite the metallic color.

kind regards

Thats obviously a bronze cuirass, there is no reason to assume it was made from leather and no evidence for leather armour moulded into the shape of a torso.
The artist has just chosen to carve it without the defined edges for the arms. just in the way he has not carved the chiton, but painted it on.

[abou]

Just saw the Brinkmann works at the Pergamon museum. Sheer happenstance that the exhibit was there when I was visiting. For the torso, the description simply stated that the second version with the metallic paint was there to represent the possibility of a gilding of gold for the cuirass instead of just the simple yellow ochre. Regardless, they felt certain it was supposed to represent a cuirass even though the sculptor did very little to sculpt one and left it up to the painter to do so.

It was a fun exhibit, if not particularly a technical one.

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

The muscled cuirass was meant to be the wearer's body in bronze literally. So what is humanly impossible in real bronze the sculptors were almost alwasy idealizing it. In the majority of later statues,usually of hellenistic rulers and roman emperors,the cuirass follows the slight curve of the torso,that the artists didn't want to sacrifice and break the harmony of the posture.
Now even if the cuirass was meant to be leather of any reasonable thickness,it still couldn't bent in two directions since it's like a cylinder wrapped around the body. The leather would be formed once to take its shape and afterwards it wouldn't bent again. Not that i believe there are any chances that this sculpture represents a leather musculata.
Khairete
Giannis