Painted cuirasses

[Nikic031]

Mein Panzer/Ruben wrote:

we do know that metal was painted in antiquity because in Macedonian art armour is very clearly depicted painted. So, for instance, on the Agios Athanasios tomb paintings there are helmets painted red and purple. Unless you would like to argue that these are leather (which I think is quite unlikely), then these are painted metal.

...not to mention many other examples, such as the Macedonian tomb of Lyson and Kallikles, and earlier examples in Greek Art, where we see Corinthians and other helmets partially painted black, or checkerboard, or imitation scales......

Not to be disrespectful but did any of you ever consider the meaning of word "art"..I don't think I will explain this properly but art is not photography and many factors are involved into making this paintings...I think only relatively small part of pottery art can be used as real reference.And much more can be attributed to creativity of an artist, or the symbolic value of his work and much more(This is the case with 99% of artist in last 8000 years).I am more and more convinced that pottery images were not even intended to show exact stuff.

Again, 2500 years ago someone perhaps decided he should paint his armor,knowing the nature of humans there is good chance this actually happened,and some artist saw inspiration in him...all of them would after all, even today..That paint (or the unscratched parts of it to be exact) would be awful after only few trainings and one small incident(not to mention real battle).So I say whoever painted armor was rich,not too much of a regular soldier and certainly a show off...

As for checkered helmets---pure art. With 1cm of space and 3mm brush you can not depict real decoration you see in helmets and shield rims in museums etc etc....The only thing you can do (and as an pottery artist you will want to decorate everything,and make pretty pictures) is to put few dots or squares where real decoration(if any) was.

Thank God for museums or we would completely "cartoonize" ancient world....