Red paenula

[Caballo]

This gravestone from Hungary of Publius Aelius Mestrius, Optio of Leg II Adiutrix was new to me. Reddish paint still exists on the paenula between his legs and possible traces of paint exist on other areas. Your thoughts?
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/raid5/hungary/ ... CN6123.JPG

(I'd post the image itself if I could work out how to do it on the new RAT board!)

[Praefectusclassis]

Cool! That stone's new to me too! Red paint is not very unusual on tombstones though. Check out some of the stones in the imagebase.
To post an image, use the IMG tags before and after a link. Like this: [ Img ]http://rubens.anu.edu.au/raid5/hungary/budapest/museums/hungarian_national_museum/rome/sculpture/funerary/stele_reliefs/DSCN6123.JPG [/ img]. Without the superfluous spaces, that works out as

[Tarbicus]

Okay, if we look at the reddish paint, it is also on *his* left calf, which also slightly spreads onto *his* right calf.

Maybe sloppy artistry, I don't know. But, It's also definitely on his legs. I agree that it is mainly on the inside of the back part of the paenula, though. But it does beg the question why is it not there on the front of the paenula?

Cheers.

[Caballo]

I also think there may be some ochre paint in the fold under his left hand?

[Tarbicus]

See below - sorry, messed up reply :oops:

[Tarbicus]

there may be some ochre paint in the fold under his left hand?

Nope, I'm personally pretty sure it's red, although there could possibly be ochre further out. Red liner maybe? The outside of the paenula ochre?. Here's the same image processed to get rid of the detail using various filters, including a couple by Kodak. Could be the depth of the relief has protected the pigment from the elements. I'm not a scientist.



Problem is that the photos on the website have been shot under tungsten lighting without any proper colour correction. But I'm pretty sure that is red paint, after auto-levelling the colours of the image. It would be good to get stills with less noise and better lighting.

Cheers.