Youtuber Adam Something made a video attempting to address misconceptions about classical statues, and managed to make more errors than he corrected. I have a double classics major, having studied Greek and Roman history, art, architecture and oratory, as well as the Greek and Latin languages, so I feel confident explaining where Adam went wrong. This video explains that classical statues weren’t whitewashed.
Adam Something. “How We Whitewashed The Classical Era.” Youtube, 4 June 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEjCNzGOe3Q.
Adeline, Jules. Adeline’s Art Dictionary: Containing a Complete Index of All Terms Used in Art, Architecture, Heraldry, and Archaeology. D. Appleton, 1891.
Baedeker (Firm), Karl. Greece: Handbook for Travellers. K. Baedeker, 1894.
Bell, John. “Color on Statues, Color Round Statues, and Paintings and Sculpture Arranged Together.” Journal of the Society of Arts 9.440 (1861): 420–27.
Bond, Sarah. “Whitewashing Ancient Statues: Whiteness, Racism And Color In The Ancient World.” Forbes, n.d. https://www.forbes.com/sites/drsarahbond/2017/04/27/whitewashing-ancient-statues-whiteness-racism-and-color-in-the-ancient-world/.
Brinkmann, Vinzenz. “Looking Back on 40 Years of Research.” Liebieghaus, n.d. https://www.liebieghaus.de/en/insights/looking-back-40-years-research.
Cameron, Alan. “The Life, Work and Death of Hypatia.” Pages 65–82 in Le Voyage Des Légendes : Hommages à Pierre Chuvin. Edited by Delphine Lauritzen and Michel Tardieu. CNRS Alpha. Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2019. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.editionscnrs.23870, http://books.openedition.org/editionscnrs/23870.
Combs, Meghan. “The Polychromy of Greek and Roman Art; An Investigation of Museum Practices.” Master of Arts, City University of New York, 2012.
Finn, D J. “The Greeks and Painted Sculpture.” Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review of Letters, Philosophy, & Science 2.6 (1913).
Gardner, Helen, Horst De la Croix, and Richard G. Tansey. Gardner’s Art through the Ages. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970.
Gautier, Théophile. “DU BEAU DANS L’ART. RÉFLEXIONS ET MENUS PROPOS D’UN PEINTRE GENEVOIS, ouvrage posthume de M. Topffer.” Revue des Deux Mondes (1829-1971), NOUVELLE SÉRIE 19.5 (1847): 887–908.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Theory of Colours. Translated by Donald Eastlake. London: John Murray, 1840.
Hodne, Lasse. “Olympian Jupiter. Winckelmann and Quatremère de Quincy on Ancient Polychromy.” CLARA 5 (2020). https://doi.org/10.5617/clara.v5i0.7978, https://journals.uio.no/CLARA/article/view/7978.
———. “Winckelmann’s Depreciation of Colour in Light of the Querelle Du Coloris and Recent Critique.” Konsthistorisk Tidskrift/Journal of Art History 89.3 (2020): 191–210. https://doi.org/10.1080/00233609.2020.1788636.
Irwin, David G., and John Flaxman. John Flaxman 1755-1826: Sculptor, Illustrator, Designer. Studio Vista, 1979.
Jebb, R. C. The Ajax of Sophocles. Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes, 1882.
Jenner, William A. “Review: The Message of Greek Art.” The Classical Weekly 8.4 (1914): 26–29. https://doi.org/10.2307/4386956.
Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner’s Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective: Volume II. Cengage Learning, 2017.
Laver, James. Victoriana. Pyne Press, 1975.
Lechat, Henri. “Note sur la polychromie des statues grecques.” rea 10.2 (1908): 161–68. https://doi.org/10.3406/rea.1908.1537.
Mach, Edvund Von. Greek Sculpture – Its Spirit And Principles. Boston, USA: Ginn & Company Publishers, 1903.
Magazine, Smithsonian, and Meilan Solly. “See the Vibrant, Long-Overlooked Colors of Classical Sculptures.” Smithsonian Magazine, 28 June 2022. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/see-the-vibrant-long-overlooked-colors-of-classical-sculptures-180980321/.
Martin, Arselia Bessie. Application of Color to Antique Grecian Architecture. Illinois, USA: University of Illinois, 1910.
Menen, Aubrey. Rome for Ourselves. McGraw-Hill, 1960.
Pollitt, Jerome Jordan. Art and Experience in Classical Greece. Cambridge University Press, 1972.
Pyhrr, Stuart W., Filippo Negroli, and José-A. Godoy. Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and His Contemporaries. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998.
Richardson, Rufus Byam. A History of Greek Sculpture. American book company, 1911.
Richter, Gisela M. A. “Polychromy in Greek Sculpture with Special Reference to the Archaic Attic Gravestones in the Metropolitan Museum.” American Journal of Archaeology 48.4 (1944): 321–33. https://doi.org/10.2307/499897.
———. “Polychromy in Greek Sculpture with Special Reference to the Archaic Attic Gravestones in the Metropolitan Museum.” Ancient Art: Pre-Greek and Greek Art. Edited by James S. Ackerman. Vol. 1 of Garland Library of the History of Art. New York: Garland Publishing, 1976.
———. “The Hermes of Praxiteles.” American Journal of Archaeology 35.3 (1931): 277–90.
Seltman, Charles Theodore. Approach to Greek Art. London & New York: Studio Publications, 1948.
Talbot, Margaret. “The Myth of Whiteness in Classical Sculpture.” The New Yorker, 22 October 2018. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/29/the-myth-of-whiteness-in-classical-sculpture.
Westmacott, Richard. “On Colouring Statues.” Archaeological Journal 12.1 (1855): 22–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/00665983.1855.10850967.
Westropp, Hodder Michael. Handbook of Archaeology: Egyptian-Greek-Etruscan-Roman. George Bell, 1878.
Winckelmann, Johann Joachim. The History of Ancient Art. Translated by Giles Henry Lodge. Vol. 2. Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1849.
“Gardner’s Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective, Volume I” (2017).
“LA POLYCHROMIE DANS LA SCULPTURE ANTIQUE.” Revue Archéologique, Troisième Série 26 (1895): 347–58.
The English Cyclopaedia. Bradbury, Evans, 1867.
