Circumlitio: The Polychromy of Antique and Medieval Sculpture

Scholars around the world are researching the degree to which colour was employed in classical and medieval sculpture. Their numerous activities and projects were most recently presented and debated at an international colloquium held in the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung in Frankfurt. The current contributions of 20 internationally known scholars are brought together in this richly illustrated book in English. Among specialists, the educated layperson's ideal of an antiquity in shining white marble has long since been dismissed as an historical error. The classical and medieval reality of coloured sculpture is now regarded as an incontrovertible fact. As long ago as the early 19th century, statues with remains of their original paint were not only discovered in Greece, but news of them was published. In the 20th century, these discoveries were at first neglected. However the work done b