Clay female bust

Ancient Greek art was colourful. Sculptures, reliefs, figurines and some vase-types were richly decorated with pigments. To apply the pigments on the surface of objects, the artists had to mix them with organic glues, such as resin, wax etc. Organic materials, however, wear and decompose relatively quickly, and as a result the pigments also disappear. This is why few sculptures or figures preserve in full their original colours; good preservation occurs only if a coloured object was buried shortly after its decoration in soils with low levels of oxidizing agents.

This seems to have been the case with this clay protome, which comes from a 6th c. BC workshop located at Boeotia, in Central Greece. One can see clearly (a) the layer of fired clay (red-brown colour), (b) the whitish slip, which provided the background, and (c) the colours which were used to render the details of the eyes, nose, hairstyle, the garments and even the woman’s necklace with a small round pendant.

PUBLICATION
– Vlassopoulou C.. 2006. Catalogue no. 41, in Choremi-Spetsieri Α. – Zarkadas Α. (eds), The Paul and Alexandra Canellopoulos Museum. Ancient Art, Athens, Αθήνα, 64.