This book derives from a 2022 conference. Through the exploration of ancient texts, the examination of archaeological data and the use of archaeometric analyses, the presenters at this conference addressed subjects related to the use and conceptualisation of colour in the cultures of ancient Western Asia, Egypt and the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean through various approaches. The contributions presented in that meeting have, with one exception, been collected and published by the conference organizers in an open access format in two consecutive issues — n. 13 (2022) and n. 14 (2023) — of the journal Technai.[1]
The collection of essays in the first volume are preceded by a short introduction by Martelli and Sassi.[2] The approach of the contributions is varied but they are mainly based on technical issues. The editors have understandably organised the papers following geographical and chronological criteria, but have also distributed them in a logical manner, grouped according to main topic. Following the introduction are three chapters dealing with means and techniques for colouring and producing coloured materials in antiquity. The first two chapters deal with first millennium-BC Mesopotamian texts. Shiyanthi Thavapalan discusses stained glass production processes and secondary uses, as described in cuneiform texts which were training materials for scribes rather than manuals for glassmakers. Special attention is paid to the use of fire and water in such production processes and on the specific vocabulary (in Akkadian) related to both procedures and colours. In the second chapter Eduardo A. Escobar illustrates the dyeing practices described in a fragmentary Neo-Babylonian tablet, with their cultic and technical features and implications. The third chapter, by Gil Gambash, Beatrice Pestarino and David E. Friesem, focuses on the complex theme of trade, collection and production of raw materials, semi-finished and finished products regarding purple pigments and dyes in the ancient Mediterranean. The archaeological and historical view proposed here gives an innovative and rich frame for the collection and use of murex and purple dyes in the ancient world.
The successive group of articles instead concerns ancient alchemical traditions and the most appropriate ways of interpreting and using them from a historical-archaeological standpoint. Matteo Martelli explains the developments of an investigation about ancient alchemical beliefs and practices, contextualising them historically and culturally. As well as an in-depth treatment of the so-called ‘water of sulphur’ (or ‘divine water’), Martelli illustrates the laboratory experiments carried out by his team. In such experiments the instructions from ancient alchemic texts on colouring metals were put into practice, obtaining inspiring and intriguing results. Cristina Viano addresses the theme of the “noir alchimique” (alchemic black), exploring the possible etymologies of the Greek word chêmeia. Her investigation, which is thorough and of great interest, shows how basic alchemic knowledge must have originated in Egypt, then was subsequently acquired by the Greeks, later transmitted to the Romans and finally inherited by medieval Mediterranean cultures. The Greek name itself chêmeia (from which — through Arabic — alchemy derives) should probably be related to the land of Egypt, which was called km.t in ancient Egyptian and khme in Coptic. The next paper, by Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, proposes case studies and experiments related to the polychromy of ancient Greek and Roman bronze sculptures. Chemical treatments, and especially patination, carried out in antiquity in order to give metals and their alloys a specific surface colouring, are the central subject of the study. The subject matter is similar to that of Martelli’s contribution, but this work is more focused on detectable clues and reconstructions and less on laboratory experiments. As in the previous two chapters, Greek and Roman technical knowledge of metal treatment and transformation is seen as a development of the Egyptian tradition. Both in this and in Martelli’s work the experiments and the observations described are precise and convincing, but at least one relevant issue is missing: the processes and dynamics that over the centuries have caused the almost total discolouration of almost all surfaces treated in the ways described (and any concerns the ancients had regarding this matter).
These three articles dealing with alchemic knowledge, archaeometry and experimental approaches concludes the first volume, while the second begins with three papers that follow a logical thread focused on the coloured materials and pigments used to decorate and paint objects and architecture.
In the second volume, Brinkmann and Koch-Brinkmann investigate the value, production and use of blue pigments in antiquity, with a special focus on Greek sculpture. The Greeks had a variety of techniques to produce the blue colours for sculptures, and here the authors highlight the direct or indirect links between Hellenic craftsmanship and the Egyptian tradition, while also stressing the importance of the long-distance trade of raw and processed materials in antiquity. As in other papers of this collection (such as that by Escobar and the other contribution by these two authors), an important point is justly placed in the spotlight here: the value that some qualitative features of colours and coloured surfaces, especially brightness, had for many ancient cultures. This results from the analyses the authors had carried out on the features of Greek architectural elements and sculptures: “… the material is quasi secondary: the main concern was to create brilliant, intense blues – or reds” (p. 42); “So here again it was a matter of the luminosity of the blue; the choice of material was individual and came second” (p. 43).
In the following chapter, Hariclia Brecoulaki and Giovanni Verri explain the complexity of the use of pigments in ancient Greek and Roman paintings, in particular in the representation of eyes and faces. They argue that this was not only a question of choosing the most suitable pigments but also, from a technical point of view, of the ability to combine different colours to achieve a specific result, and, from an expressive point of view, of duly employing the nuances and symbolic references of the chosen hue (e.g., mixing blue and white pigments to obtain a white colour suitable for the “bright” eyes of a “brave and stout-hearted man”, p. 57). This investigation involves also the use of visible-induced luminescence (VIL) and ultraviolet-induced luminescence (UIL).
Book 35 of Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, dedicated to painting, is the subject of the next contribution by Agnès Rouveret. Combining evidence from Pliny with examples of the ancient use in painting of light, shades and colours, the investigation takes into account the values attributed to the colours and their uses in ancient painting, values that pertain to a tradition which certainly goes back at least as far as Hellenistic Greece and seems to continue in Republican and Imperial Rome. There were four basic pigments considered to make up the complete kit for creating contours, any hue useful for naturalistic representations and any kind of light or shadow effect, through their fine and well-calibrated juxtaposition, superimposition or mixing.
The last three contributions in this collection do not fit into one common group. Like Rouveret, Chiara Ballestrazzi begins her discussion with some explanations present in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, drawing from Book 37 to discuss colour of gemstones in ancient Rome. The many possible hues of gemstones are discussed in relation to their social and cultural meaning, including their association with prestige, gender and gender roles, and the intrinsic masculinity or femininity of gems. Part of the essay deals with glass imitations and, more interesting, the recipes of the Stockholm Papyrus (which is part of the Graeco-Egyptian heritage) regarding the artificial colouring of stones in order to make them resemble precious gems (alchemic practices that recall those mentioned by Martelli).
Effie Photos-Jones tries to solve the origin of red Lemnian earth/miltos. The core of the enigma is the origin of the red or reddish colour shown by ancient clay sealed artefacts, resembling tokens, which were considered to be (and used as) a medicine with exceptional properties. Ancient authors had different explanations for this question, and to assess their truthfulness Photos-Jones can only rely on an ancient description of a ritual for the production of such artefacts, and on analyses of similar objects later produced between the 16th and 18th centuries. She suspects that the colour and healing properties of Lemnian Earth could be due to the presence in its composition of hematite and some fungal species.
Maria Michela Sassi’s closing essay is a fitting conclusion to the publication. Sassi describes the ideas and symbols related to colours and their nature in ancient Greek culture, stressing the analogies with other civilisations (e.g., the importance attached to brightness). Such ancient conceptions are discussed within the context of both ancient and modern theories about colours, and the discussion is significantly enriched with the critical use and analysis of views developed in anthropological and ethnolinguistic literature, beginning with the cross-cultural primary role seemingly played by the colours black, white and red.
Overall this collection of essays is successful in exploring symbolism and technical aspects regarding the production, use and perception of colors in antiquity, and offers insights and research results that are innovative and of great interest, given their potential for future development. The approaches of the researchers and the issues they address are varied and the methodological reflections, the study of ancient sources and the quantitative and experimental applications are generally well balanced. It is also worth emphasising that the cultural aspects and perceptual peculiarities of the different cultures are duly taken into account by all authors, as are the technical aspects concerning the use, production and conception of colours in antiquity. This valuable publication will be appreciated by specialists in ancient art and technologies and could work well also as a teaching tool for advanced classes.
Authors and Titles
Volume 1
Matteo Martelli and Maria Michela Sassi, Ancient science and technology of colour: an introduction
Shiyanthi Thavapalan, How to do things with fire and water: some observations on the theory and practice of crafts in Mesopotamia
Eduardo A. Escobar, Colour and cultural maintenance in ancient Babylonia: Contextualizing wool dye recipe BM 62788 + BM 82978
Gil Gambash, Beatrice Pestarino and David E. Friesem, From murex to fabric: the Mediterranean purple
Matteo Martelli, Transmuting tinctures: water of sulphur, quicklime, and “washes” in Graeco-Egyptian alchemy
Cristina Viano, Noir alchimique: questions d’étymologie et de transmutation
Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, Preliminary considerations on the aesthetics and narration of ancient Greek and Roman bronze sculpture: three case studies and two experiments
Volume 2
Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, Tracking blue: some remarks on blue colour materials in the polychromy of ancient Greek sculpture
Hariclia Brecoulaki and Giovanni Verri, “From the face and the expression of the eyes”: multidisciplinary studies of pigments in ancient Greek and Roman painted surfaces
Agnès Rouveret, Certamen artis ac naturae: couleurs et matières dans la définition plinienne de la peinture (Histoire naturelle, livre 35)
Chiara Ballestrazzi, The colours of gemstones in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, Book 37
Effie Photos-Jones, Pigments giving more than colour: the case of Lemnian earth or miltos
Maria Michela Sassi, A few remarks on the relationship between materials, technology and colour experience in ancient Greece
Notes
[1] A short summary of the missing paper by Agnese Benzonelli on artificially patinated “black bronzes” appears as an appendix to the introduction by Martelli and Sassi.
[2] Each volume also includes an unrelated article.