The New Face of an Ancient Art Form

The fellow at the left is miniature sculpture I did a few years ago. It's only about 2 1/4 inches high and has been painted in a realistic manner, with shading and highlighting to enhance the form. As you can see, this is no toy soldier, though, the art form did develop from them.

Going back to the 1950's or 60's modelers have developed the notion of realistically painting these mini-sculptures to the point where it has become art. Yeah, I saw The 40 Year Old Virgin. You're thinking, "Art? No way. That's just the ultimate geek hobby." Maybe so, but before you pass judgement take a look at these photos from the recent World Expo event held in Spain a few weeks ago. There are even more here. Collectors are buying these works as they would an original painting or bronze sculpture.

Ok, so where's the Ancient part? 1960 is not exactly antiquity now is it? Well, remember all of those gleaming white marble sculptures that typify ancient Greek art? According to archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann, they were painted. Time has erased almost all traces of paint - at least those visible to the naked eye. He's employed high-intensity lamps, ultraviolet light, and cameras to re-evaluate these ancient sculptures for color. Then he reproduced some of them in living color! Vivid color:

According to an in depth Smithsonian article, he has even found evidence that techniques for painting the statues developed over time. After a while, the ancient Greeks may have used subtle shading and highlighting or cross hatching to enhance the forms and volumes. You have to wonder how sophisticated they got with their paint jobs. Maybe that flat painting style like the one reproduced in the photo above is only the under-painting. One thing for sure, it certainly changes the image of those austere, white Greek temples into one of dazzling color!

So, there is real historic precedent in the ultimate history geek hobby! And, we all know that those ancient Greek dudes were pretty cool too.