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I'm surprised more museums don't have modern replicas demonstrating what the ancient artifacts would have looked like when pristine.
by raldi 1y ago
I'm surprised more museums don't have modern replicas demonstrating what the ancient artifacts would have looked like when pristine.
- Joel_Mckay 1y agoThere are stories of when near perfect mirrors entered trade. Some stories are sweet, and others rather macabre: https://www.japanpowered.com/folklore-and-urban-legends/mirror-matsuyama https://www.japanpowered.com/folklore-and-urban-legends/mirr... Technology tends to influence cultures in subtle ways few remember a generation later. =3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Most_Dangerous_Animal_In_The_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Most_Dangerous_Animal_In_T...
- sanskarix 1y agoBritish Museum actually does this with their Greek statues - shows how they were painted. The gap between "marble perfection" and "gaudy colors" is wild. Makes you realize how much our idea of classical taste is just patina.
- 1000units 1y agoSo the sculptors had much better taste than the painters they allowed? Or are the reproductions not faithful?
- ljlolel 1y agosounds like partly they didn't have access to great pigments back then
- AnimalMuppet 1y agoWell, they didn't have pigments that would maintain their color and adhere to a surface for 2000 years. Do we?
- twelvechairs 1y agoOne view is that the western idea of "good taste" was informed by people looking at greek and roman statues and buildings and incorrectly assuming they were always intended to be plain.
- mock-possum 1y agoSort of explains a lot doesn’t it
- bcrosby95 1y agoThis is why I prefer my rust bucket of a car to something new. In 2,000 years the masses will view it as good taste.
- username332211 1y agoThere are frescoes of statues[1] and architecture[2] in Pompeii. Feel free to compare them with the reproductions. [1] https://www.worldhistory.org/image/2232/fresco-of-a-statue-of-mars-pompeii/ https://www.worldhistory.org/image/2232/fresco-of-a-statue-o...
- raldi 1y agoYou forgot link 2
- username332211 1y agoSorry. https://www.maxwellanderson.com/pompeian-frescoes-in-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art https://www.maxwellanderson.com/pompeian-frescoes-in-the-met...
- bazoom42 1y agoWe don’t know. The painted reconstructions are based on pigments found on the statues, but we dont know exactly how the painting looked. But the paintings which have been preserved from antiquity are quite beautiful.
- rkagerer 1y agoOr even polish up the corroded artifacts and mirrors they do have. Why don't they do this?
- jiehong 1y agoI think there is a tension between preserving artifacts as-is, vs restoring them. Restoring them would also cause repeated wear and tear, and potentially erasing clues we haven't recognised as important yet. Making replicas is more suitable: the public can also touch and use them as well.
- SoftTalker 1y agoEver seen a polished steel mirror in a gas station bathroom?