WHITE OR COLORED?

[Endre Fodstad]

I love to bring up Uta and her stout (ok, bovine) man Ekkehart when people start rambling about the lack of naturalism in high medieval art.

I saw the Istanbul exhibition last year. Great show. If there is one thing we should shoot down like a sick bird it is the "pure white classical" image of ancient statuary. COLORED!

It's the same thing with medieval statues (and parts of the exteriors and interiors of buildings for that matter). The grey/white/natural stone color should go, replaced by the colors that, to modern eyes, looks rather garish. Bugger classicism and neoclassicism and their hospital-white image of the past.