Gods in Color or Gods in Colour (original title in German: Bunte Götter – Die Farbigkeit antiker Skulptur ("Painted gods – the polychromy of ancient sculpture") is a travelling exhibition of varying format and extent that has been shown in multiple cities worldwide. Its subject is ancient polychromy, i.e. the original, brightly painted, appearance of ancient sculpture and architecture.

Concept

The exhibition is based on the conclusions drawn from research on ancient polychromy, conducted especially by the classical archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann since the early 1980s, based on earlier works by Volkmar von Graeve. Working together with Raimund Wünsche, the director of the Glyptothek at Munich, Brinkmann developed the concept for the exhibition, culminating in the original Munich show in 2003. It displayed copies of ancient sculpture in their reconstructed and painted appearance that had been produced during his studies, as well as new reconstructions created especially for the exhibition, in conjunction with the originals or comparable ancient sculptures. Soon, the exhibition began to travel to other cities in Germany and beyond.

Since 2007, the exhibition and underlying research has received support from a foundation created by the government of Bavaria, as well as private donations. After the original German catalogue produced for the 2003 Munich exhibition, new editions were issued for later showings, most recently for the 2020 one in Frankfurt. An English catalogue was published for the 2007–2008 showing in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University and more recently for the show in San Francisco (Legion of Honor (museum)). In 2007, the Colored Gods formed part of the exhibition Color of Life – Polychromy in Sculpture from Antiquity to the Present, at the Getty Villa in Los Angeles, with contributions in the respective catalogue.

Dates

So far, the exhibit has been shown in the following locations: 16 December 2003 – 29 February 2004: Glyptothek, Munich Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen Vatican Museums, Rome 11 August – 20 November 2005: Skulpturhalle, Basel 2 December 2005 – 26 March 2006: Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam 2006: Archaeological Museum, Istanbul 9 January – 24 March 2007: as Πολύχρωμοι Θεοί/Polychromoi Theoi, National Archaeological Museum, Athens 4 April – 1 July 2007: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg 22 September 2007 – 20 January 2008: as Gods in Color. Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity, Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 6 March – 23 June 2008: Part of exhibition Color of Life – Polychromy in Sculpture from Antiquity to the Present, Getty Villa, Los Angeles 8 October 2008 – 15 February 2009: Liebieghaus, Frankfurt am Main 6 March – 1 June 2009: Antikensammlung, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, Kassel 18 December 2009 – 18 April 2010: Museo Arqueológico Regional de la Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid 13 July – 3 October 2010: Antikensammlung in the Pergamonmuseum, Berlin 9 October 2010 – 30 January 2011: as White Lies, Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm 6 March – 31 July 2011: Georg-August-Universität, Archaeological Institute, Göttingen 29 October 2011 – 20 May 2012: Heidelberg University 28 June – 28 October 2012: Kunstsammlungen, Ruhr University Bochum 13 November 2012 – 17 March 2013: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 11 April 2014 – 10 August 2014: Museum of Tübingen University, Tübingen 22 January 2015 – 14 June 2015: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 11 October 2016 – 8 January 2017: Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City 28 October 2017 – 7 January 2018: Legion of Honor (museum), San Francisco 30 January 2020 – 26 September 2021: Bunte Götter – Golden Edition, Liebieghaus, Frankfurt am Main 5 July 2022 – 23 March 2023: participation in Chroma. Ancient Sculpture in Color, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City October 2023 – June 2024: Gallo-Roman Museum, Tongeren, Belgium

Research and reconstruction objects (selection) West and East pediment of Aphaea Temple on Aegina Archer in Scythian garment (three variants) Statue of Athena (two variants) Head of a warrior (two variants) Shield with boar as device Shield with eagle and serpent

Sculpture from the Athenian Acropolis Statue of the so-called Peplos Kore (three variants) Cuirassed Torso (two variants) So-called Chios Kore So-called Persian Rider Riace Bronzes

Sculpture from Attica Grave Statue of Phrasikleia Kore Grave Stele of Aristion (two variants) Theseus and Antiope from Eretria (two variants) Grave Stele of Paramythion (two variants)

Sculpture from Delos So-called Small Herculaneum Woman Statue of a Muse (five variants)

Other sculpture from Greece Kouros of Tenea Sphinx from Thasos Bronzes from Quirinal (so-called Boxer at Rest and so-called Hellenistic Prince)

Sculpture from Pompeii So-called Winckelmann-Artemis (three variants) So-called Venus Lovatelli

Roman portraiture Portrait of Emperor Caligula (three variants)

Elements from Greek Architecture Antefix from the Temple of Aphaea Ionic capital from the Athenian Agora

Catalogues In German: Vinzenz Brinkmann, Raimund Wünsche (eds.): Bunte Götter. Die Farbigkeit antiker Skulptur. Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, Munich 2004. . [Original catalogue] Various editions coinciding with later showings Vinzenz Brinkmann, Andreas Scholl (eds.): Bunte Götter. Die Farbigkeit antiker Skulptur. Hirmer, Munich, 2010. Vinzenz Brinkmann, Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann (eds.): Bunte Götter – Golden Edition. Die Farbigkeit antiker Skulptur. Prestel, Munich 2020. In English: Vinzenz Brinkmann (ed.): Gods in Color – Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity, Biering & Brinkmann, Munich, 2007. [Coinciding with Harvard showing] Roberta Panzanelli, Eike Schmidt, Kenneth Lapatin (eds.): The Color of Life: Polychromy in Sculpture from Antiquity to the Present, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 2008. [Catalogue for the L.A. exhibition, including sections on the Gods in Color exhibit] Vinzenz Brinkmann, Oliver Primavesi, Max Hollein: Circumlitio. The Polychromy of Antique and Medieval Sculpture. 2010. Vinzenz Brinkmann, Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, Renée Dreyfus: Gods in Color – Polychromy in the Ancient World, Prestel, New York 2017.

Gallery

References

External links

Stiftung Archäologie/Bavarian Archaeology Foundation Gods in colors – website on the exhibition