Share Your Greek Artwork

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Yes,i'm saying that all this is patina,due to time,simply because this is what happens if you burry or even just let a bronze item for some years. Far fewer than 2500! Archeologists never clean out the patina of the bronze,because the patina is part of the item itself,not soil or other organic stuff. As i'm saying that the ancients were polishing ,and did their best to maintain it, their armour. The wall paintings i posted are from the 5th century bc. And all the coloured scenes we have of bronze-armed men in antiquity shows a bright yellow bronze.You can't just say that just for the period of the corinthian helmet they might haven't been polishing thier helmets"! As for corinthians,there are vases that show them painted with a white-yellow paint!! But in all the thousants of vases i have seen,i don't remember of one corinthian helmet shown darker that skin colour in redware pottery!
You are right,of course bronze is copper/tin alloy,and yes,ancient bronze seems to be low tin around 10%. Don't forget they had to raise those helmets!
The modern notion to add this patina on every bronze item we make is just that: a modern notion. All sculptures today have a patina,just because they imitate the ancient ones in the state they are today. Also because nobody today wishes to be polishing and repolishing statues. Actually the evidence is that in antiquity all the bronze statues were polished.
And yes,some of these statues have happened to spend most of their time till today in conditions good enough to make them have a nice patina that didn't ruin the surface.
Xenophon himself though says that the Spartans preffered covering htier shields in bronze,because they are easily polished. Of course a patina doesn't need polishing!
So just accept the evidence,or show some real counter evidence. When we don't know everything,we rather stick to the evidence we have rather than invent new theories fron scratch. And even less,criticise those that do follow the evidence.
Khaire
Giannis