Color on Trajan\'s Column

[Jona Lendering]

The news was around for some time already, but here are photos: [url:2xn2tn62]http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/04/10/trajan-column.html[/url]

[Tiberius Clodius Corvinus]

great. thanks for posting, ... as I sometimes digitally colorize statues I'm always looking for pictures like these ... I had expected the colors far brighter ...

[D B Campbell]

I love those brown leather hamatas the auxiliaries are wearing. :roll:

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I thought tha twas just rust... :wink: :lol:

[Paullus Scipio]

Don't take the illustrative photo too literally, folks! .....as has been observed here above, that's obviously just an artist's "mock-up"....notice that only certain 'bits' are filled in with colour.

And I wouldn't go overboard about the proposed 'son et lumiere' show either.

I would be more interested in what they actually found....traces of paint, I guess, but you can bet they didn't get samples from the whole column, or even a substantial part of it, so most of any 'colour scheme' is going to be pure speculation........

Also, given that the Column was probably repainted from time to time, it would be interesting to know if there were several layers of paint, and if any found samples were the original coat........

[P. Clodius Secundus]

Maybe someone should contact them and have them at least switch the hamatae and bracchae on the Auxliiiaries. If any one does please use the words trousers and shirts to avoid confusion. Did anyone else notice that about halfway through the piece the footage was actually of the Column of Marcus Aurelius? I wish they'd zoomed in on the carrus on the right side of the lower spiral.

[Iagoba]

The hamatas aren´t rusted, it´s the blood of their enemies! :twisted:

Well, yes, if someone which can speak Italian (not as me :oops: ) can contact them, I would be grateful

BTW, after so many plaster casts that have been done, how did they found paint traces? :?

Here, in Santiago´s de Compostela romanic "Pórtico de la Gloria" the paint traces were stripped away while doing the casts... :evil:

[D B Campbell]

I would be more interested in what they actually found....traces of paint, I guess, but you can bet they didn't get samples from the whole column, or even a substantial part of it, so most of any 'colour scheme' is going to be pure speculation........

I may have misread the report, but I was under the impression that it was entirely speculative. I'd be very surprised if any paint survived on Trajan's Column!

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

The hamatas aren´t rusted, it´s the blood of their enemies! :twisted:

:

Selective staining, eh? Clever, those Romans.... :lol:

[Tiberius Clodius Corvinus]

I'd be very surprised if any paint survived on Trajan's Column!

This has been mentioned here and it seems that color traces had been discovered already in 1833, before plaster casts were made.

http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... lor+colour

I think further that modern equipment is able to detect even the slightest amount of color still on the column. The paint will surely have "soaked" deeper into the structure of the material of the column than the later plaster while doing the casts.

May be also some characteristical chemical reaction between particles of the color (e.g. salt compounds) and the surface of the column. But I don't know for sure.

[D B Campbell]

Of course, it's well known that the Romans painted their sculptures.

I'd be very surprised if any paint survived on Trajan's Column ...

... I was primarily thinking of the plaster casts, which surely removed any remaining traces, not to mention years of pollution in central Rome.

This has been mentioned here and it seems that color traces had been discovered already in 1833, before plaster casts were made.

I wonder where this was reported?

If it's true, I'd have thought Lepper & Frere ([amazon]Trajan's Column: a new edition of the Cichorius plates[/amazon]) might've known about it. But they simply state:

It [viz. the Column] may originally have been coloured, or partly picked out in colour, but no traces of this survive.

[Decius]

i'm so excited and I just can't hide it. i'm about to lose control but I think I like it...I like it!

[DanM]

THis ends the tunic color debate! Fortunatly, for my local legion, they are V macedonica, so I think that's on there!