Did You Know That Classical Sculptures Were Originally Colored?

Let's think of a marble sculpture, the Statue of Liberty, or the Great Sphinx of Giza. We all have a very similar mental image: a pristine white, an intense green, or the light color of limestone. This same assertion would have been very different 100 or 2,000 years ago, as over time, sculptures and monuments have lost or changed their colors.

It's very difficult to imagine a red Eiffel Tower or the Parthenon in Athens painted in the brightest colors we can think of, but that's how the monuments we visit today were born. Ancient civilizations (Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians) believed that a work of art was not finished until it was painted, and they thought this applied to all their constructions.

Erosion has been removing these colors that once brought life to ancient artworks. But they didn't just paint sculptures like the Venus de Milo; they also decorated all the buildings that have come down to us with very different colors. The Parthenon shone with reds and blues, just like the Great Sphinx of Giza, which was red with the upper part painted blue and yellow.

A secret that has remained hidden for millennia. When the Italians discovered these sculptures, they resurfaced in the pristine white we know today and assumed that's how they were created. Even the remaining paint was cleaned off, thinking it was imperfections that spoiled the great work of art.

Let's think of a marble sculpture, the Statue of Liberty, or the Great Sphinx of Giza. We all have a very similar mental image: a pristine white, an intense green, or the light color of limestone. This same assertion would have been very different 100 or 2,000 years ago, as over time, sculptures and monuments have lost or changed their colors.

But it's not just the ancient world that has lost its original color; the great constructions of the late 19th century are also very different from how they were known by their contemporaries. The famous Eiffel Tower, much more beloved now than in its early years, was painted Venetian red. Later, it was painted a reddish-brown, as this paint protected the tower, and over the years this color has varied, but it has always kept a brown tone.

Another significant modern example is the Statue of Liberty, the great symbol of the United States, which has also changed a lot since its construction. Originally, it was a copper color. For our minds, it's very difficult to imagine these historical monuments in another color, but it's curious to think how our monuments will look in the future.