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+--- Thread: Primaporta Augustus (/showthread.php?tid=4602)
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Primaporta Augustus - Jona Lendering - 01-28-2006
Today, I visited an exposition on the use of color in ancient art in the Amsterdam Allard Pierson Museum ([url:26crdt4i]http://cf.uba.uva.nl/apm/FrameSet2.html[/url]). Here are two pictures that you may like (or not - the white statue has its charms too).
![[Image: augustus_primaporta_color01.JPG]](http://www.livius.org/a/1/weg/augustus_primaporta_color01.JPG)
![[Image: augustus_primaporta_color02.JPG]](http://www.livius.org/a/1/weg/augustus_primaporta_color02.JPG)
Re: Primaporta Augustus - caiusbeerquitius - 01-28-2006
Here's a longer article about the exhibition, in German, though. Unfortunately, I missed to visit it in Munich... :evil:
Re: Primaporta Augustus - Anonymous - 01-29-2006
Well I like it... kinda.
Very Supermanesque with the Blue/red combination working off each other... and we do know that the Romans loved their colors, especially red.
Although, the original was and is the way it is for a reason, and still looks just fine the way it is in its origianl form, but I cant comlain about this one either.
Re: Primaporta Augustus - Arahne - 01-29-2006
Is there any detailed info (perhaps in catalogue) about the photo technique (UV, IR) applied in this project? Where can I buy the catalogue on the net?
Re: Primaporta Augustus - Jona Lendering - 01-29-2006
I don't know enough about the UV-techniques to answer this question.
The catalogue is in Dutch (and I had no opportunity to buy it), but there is a German version of it (Bunte Götter), and I understand from the webpage of prof. Vinzenz Brinkmann of the University of Bochum ([url:36r7iim1]http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/archaeologie/arch/personen/publikationen/brinkmann.htm[/url]) that there will be an English catalogue too, when the exposition moves to Istanbul, Hamburg, Oxford, New York.
Re: Primaporta Augustus - tlclark - 01-29-2006
Jona,
GREAT pictures.
The old reconstruction had the breastplate in blue with figures in yellow(possibly meant to be gold), indicating that perhaps this was meant to represent gold-leaf or gilt bronze applique, (which if true would argue for a leather cuirass with bronze applique).
You can see the traces of blue and yellow/gold in person if you know where to look.
This reconstruction however, obviously overturns all of that thinking. I wish I knew why they made those choices. The alternating red blue pteruges are crazy cool!! I love'em. Never seen a re-enactor with anything like that though.
They've recreated the breast plate in white? Is that meant to be white paint or the original marble?
Any guesses?
Re: Primaporta Augustus - aitor iriarte - 01-29-2006
Travis,
In fact i intend to use that colour scheme for my subarmalis project! :wink:
Anyway, do the colour of the pterugae on each row alternate or does the colour change on each layer (or both!)? :?
Aitor
Re: Primaporta Augustus - FAVENTIANVS - 01-29-2006
Aitor, I didn't know you were a Barça hooligan... :wink:
Re: Primaporta Augustus - Robert Vermaat - 01-29-2006
Quote:In fact i intend to use that colour scheme for my subarmalis project! :wink:What! You as well!!
Re: Primaporta Augustus - aitor iriarte - 01-30-2006
Robert,
What are you talking about, making a subarmalis or being a Barcelona hooligan? :lol:
Aitor
Re: Primaporta Augustus - Robert Vermaat - 01-30-2006
A hooligan? :x D
Re: Primaporta Augustus - LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS - 01-30-2006
A thoracata from Taragona's museum, probably of one emperor, was painted in similar colours. The pteruges were red (purple?) and the border were a sky or very light blue.
The thoracata probably are dated in flavian times.
Re: Primaporta Augustus - tlclark - 01-30-2006
Quote:Travis,
In fact i intend to use that colour scheme for my subarmalis project! :wink:
Anyway, do the colour of the pterugae on each row alternate or does the colour change on each layer (or both!)? :?
Aitor
Well, it looks like both! So you have two layers (although in truth there may be three layers!) of pteruges, each with alternating blue and red pteruges. Interesting thing though, the fringe on all of them is blue!
Now I have two thoughts. If the fringe is blue, that argues for a cloth core that is blue, BUT...
Let's just consider something CRAZY. What if the pteruges are woven wool? A weft faced pteruge would be very dense and heavy, and would only show the color of the weft, BUT the warp would make up the fringe and that would be the color of the warp threads, which in this case would be blue.
Could pteruges simple be a very heavy tablet or loom woven weft-faced strap?!
this would explain the 'cloth-like' texture on many of them, and the edging, which could clearly be a selvage or wrapped edge. It could explain all of the phenomena we see in the sculpture.
Travis
Re: Primaporta Augustus - tlclark - 01-30-2006
Quote:A thoracata from Taragona's museum, probably of one emperor, was painted in similar colours. The pteruges were red (purple?) and the border were a sky or very light blue.
The thoracata probably are dated in flavian times.
Ack! Don't just tease us! Pictures! We need pictures!!
Travis
Re: Primaporta Augustus - Nathan Ross - 01-30-2006
How sure are we that these colours are accurate? Could the pigments have changed or oxidised over the centuries, for instance? I'm assuming that the restorers bear this sort of thing in mind, but then again... The blue, in particular, seems a little strange in its usage - the eagle and phalerae on the standard, and the helmet of the figure, are both this same blue, when surely they would have been metallic silver or gold? In another thread about the Aristion tombstone (on the Greek forum), what appears to be a cropped Corinthian helmet is also coloured blue. This is confusing, as not all the 'blue' areas could have been metallic (clothing, wings - or could they?) - but if there is a link between the blue and some sort of metallic paint, could the pteruges actually be alternating red and gold?
Admittedly, I could be barking up the wrong tree - it's just a thought! :wink:
About the cuirass - interesting that it's coloured the same as the face and arms. If we accept that the figures on Roman 'musculata' were painted, perhaps we should imagine that the cuirass itself was painted - and if so, perhaps it was actually painted flesh colour!. This would look decidedly grotesque, I suppose, to a modern sensibility, but we know that the Romans loved painting up their statues to look 'realistic', so why not paint 'muscled' armour to look like a naked torso?
Hmmm - Nathan