Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Roman Replicas

So I was a little bit curious about how the Romans made marble copies of the Greek statues. Metal (mostly bronze) copies made a little more sense to me since then were just poured into plaster molds. According to this brief article (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rogr/hd_rogr.htm), to make marble copies they would cast plaster figures of the original and then take exact measurements. 
I thought it was interesting that they would add other elements to suit the patron's taste. Much of what we know about Greek sculptures are from these replicas which could be very far from the original. Furthermore it was interesting to me that they had to add supports to marble copies. In my opinion, something as simple as a support added could ruin the entire aesthetics of the original piece even if they are beautiful in their own right. 

3 comments:

alyb said...

I thought it was really interesting that the Greek statues used to be painted various colors. Today when I see a Greek statue I would expect it to be white becauase i cant imagine it any other way; to think that the Greeks ornatly colored their art is really mind boggeling. I also thought it was cool tht the Greeks made their paint out of minerals and such.

Ravin S said...

Yes, it's hard to imagine the statues painted. I didn't like look of these statues painted just because I am not used to seeing them this way. I want to visit the Parthenon replica in Knoxville to see the painted statues that Mrs. Quinet said were there. That would be a pretty interesting visit.

Christine Catinis said...

I went to Greece 3 years ago and visited the Parthenon. Even though it was worn and crumbled, it was gorgeous. The detail in every statue is crazy. And i'd have to agree with my classmates, i think it's really weird seeing the statues painted. To me, it made them look fake and cheap just because im so used to only seeing them in white. I'd love to visit the Parthenon replica also and see how beutiful it looked like in it's "hey day". It must have been gorgeous.