WHITE OR COLORED?

[Tarbicus]

I dunno about classical statues, but certainly some high mediaeval ones have extremely sophisticated (and attractive to our modern eyes) shading and graduated colouring to give an extremely natural-looking figure.


Have a look at this (probably Walter de Helyon (circa 1357) and this
And also that the aesthetic sensibilities of people in classical times may not have been the same as ours or those of mediaeval people. But hey, they were a pretty sophisticated bunch . . . do you go to all that trouble to produce probably the most magnificent portrayal of the human form ever made, then paint it like a kindergarten kiddy?

They're probably post Giotto and no indication at all that the ancients did it as well IMHO. Painting figures on a flat wall is a completely different task to sculpting fully 3D, where the sculpture itself interacts with real light to give the same or similar effect. Surely the recent examinations would have revealed painted shading from different pigments? I'd never say never, but it will take a lot more than modern model making practices and Art movements from more than an entire millenium later to sway me.