Polychromy
Query URLs
https://term.museum-digital.de/md-de/tag/16584
- Note
- Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors.
When looking at artworks and architecture from antiquity and the middle ages, people tend to believe that they were monochrome. In reality, the pre-Renaissance past was full of colour, and all the Greco-Roman sculptures and Gothic cathedrals, that are now white, beige or grey, were initially painted in bright colours. As André Malraux stated, "Athens was never white but her statues, bereft of color, have conditioned the artistic sensibilities of Europe... the whole past has reached us colorless." Polychrome was and is a practice not limited only to the Western world. Non-Western artworks, like Chinese temples, Oceanian Uli figures, or Maya ceramic vases, were also decorated with colours.
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Glasmalerei mit Anna Selbdritt
Die Herkunft der Glasscheibe...
Object information
Image: Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst - CC BY-NC-SA -
Walzenkrug mit Storchenmotiv
Polychrom bemalter Walzenkrug...
Object information
Image: Albert-Heyde-Stiftung - CC BY-NC-SA -
Relief mit Hund und Katze, von der sog. Ballspielerbasis
In dem Relief aus Gussmarmor...
Object information
Image: Winckelmann-Museum Stendal - CC BY-NC-SA
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