In the world of Ancient Art.

We really do not know what these each looked like. We have some with traces of some pigment residue and know that there was color but we really don't know what that color was. We could paint statues wit a best guess but we would not be correct. Statues with no trace of color could be painted the way some student thought it should have been to fit his idea of truth but it would still be assumption. I prefer leaving the originals as we have them and displaying beside them a best guess replica. At least that way we won't have to strip the paint later when we get more evidence that the purple used was .01 more red than the shade we used last year. Do we restore things to the way they were when first made or after the third restoration when Septimius Severus repainted what Trajan restored that Caligula built? This stuff is hard!

 

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Cleaning ancient coins is normal and necessary and I doubt you realize how much cleaning has gone into the coins you see that have beautiful patinas. I don't think people should completely strip the hard patina above the metal surface from bronzes because that generally results in loss of detail and actually damages the coin but there's generally quite a bit of dirt and crud before you get to that and it needs to be removed to reveal detail. This is even more true for silver where you often have to remove the crud entirely to reveal the detail. If not, that's great and I've seen and own some beautiful coins where that's the case, but that's maybe 2-5% of ancient silver coins as the vast majority have detail obscured by silver oxidation and sulphur compounds and if you're really unlucky, horn silver.

Realistically, there's nothing historic about this crud: it was formed long after the last person ever handled the coin in antiquity, sometimes that crud was even formed in modern times due to the advent and heavy use of synthetic fertilizers in the last century or so. The history of it is "the coin sat in the ground and interacted with whatever was around it".

 

That's sort of what the Vatican does with the Augustus Prima Porta. I've been to Rome six times and have seen it only once because it was always under restoration. I begged a guard to let me see it the last time--the photo on the right. As close as I could get. It was sitting there in someone's office cubicle, like a stapler or three-hole punch. Unbelievable.

The photo on the left is a painted replica, along with a sophisticated art critic offering his professional opinion.

*caption should read "restoration"

 

FWIW, I like your own “Restoration” on the right, Gavin.

 

Yes. My wife said the beard had to go. The ultimate critic.

 

i can't fathom the OP piece being done like that nor any of the others listed... it makes me ill and the only way i'd clean a coin now ( i have one i'm thinking about cleaning)is because no or hardly any detail can be seen on it and i consider it a slug.

 

There is a segment of BBC's Life and Death in Herculaneum that discusses and shows the remaining color on marble statue head found in ash at Herculaneum, as well as digital recreations of colors from wooden ceilings that were found with remaining paint (based on chemical analysis of the residual paint).

BBC's Life and Death in Herculaneum

(tried to make it start at the segment; it's roughly 15:42-18:47)

 

“She who must be obeyed” (ala Horace Rumpole) - I understand the system very well for I have operated under it for many years.

BTW, Gavin, I appreciate all of your professional comments very much.

 

Just saw a TV movie on this called "Behold The Monkey"

 

Thank you very much for posting that video. I try to see all the programs I can about Antiquity but I had missed this one.

 

I really enjoyed it!

 

Thats criminal! A skilled conservationist could have restored every tile to it's original location with precision. Someone, no doubt, pocketed the funds set aside for skilled restoration and hired an untrained individual to perform the task for little or nothing.

 

Great video!