Contrary to popular belief, most sculptures in the ancient Mediterranean world were colorful. Paint, gilding, and inlaid materials animated and enlivened marble, bronze, and terracotta figures. Over time, much of that polychromy—the term derives from the Greek for “many colors”—has disappeared, leaving representations of humans, animals, and mythical subjects without their original definition and ornamentation. 

Chroma highlights ancient polychromy on works of art in The Met collection and reveals new discoveries of surviving color identified through cutting-edge scientific analyses and in-depth research by the Museum’s curatorial, conservation, scientific research, and imaging staff. The exhibition features a series of striking color reconstructions of major sculptures—created by Vinzenz Brinkmann, Head of the Department of Antiquity at the Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection in Frankfurt am Main, and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann—that convey the brilliance and scope of ancient polychromy. Juxtaposed with original Greek and Roman works depicting similar subjects, the reconstructions are based on the results of advanced photographic and spectroscopic techniques and comparative research of ancient works of art. Also unveiled here is a new reconstruction of an Archaic Greek sculpture of a sphinx in The Met collection, completed by the Liebieghaus team in collaboration with The Met.

This presentation provides a window onto multiple aspects of color on ancient sculpture: the practices and materials used by artists long ago; our methods for identifying and re-creating original polychromy today; the critical role color plays in conveying meaning; and the various ways that people have viewed and understood Greek and Roman polychromy over the centuries.    

Photo gallery from Michele Mitrovich, Russian-American Philhellene and PhD student in Bronze Age Aegean Archaeology: