This is Caesar Augustus.
这是凯撒·奥古斯都
He was the first official emperor of the Roman Empire.
他是罗马帝国的第一任正式皇帝
And if you’ve ever had to study Roman history,
如果你曾学习过罗马历史
You might be familiar with this little sculpture’s very famous original.
你可能不会对这个小雕塑的著名原型感到陌生
It’s called the “Augustus of Prima Porta.”
它名为《普列马波塔的奥古斯都》
It was carved in the 1st century AD,
是公元一世纪的作品
during his reign as emperor.
正处于他的执政期
Then it was lost to time,
之后它消失了
before it was dug up in the 1860s.
直到1860年代被挖掘出
Today it lives in the Vatican Museums,
如今它和其他著名雕塑一起
alongside a bunch of other famous sculptures.
伫立于梵蒂冈博物馆
But Augustus? He’s not supposed to look like this.
但是奥古斯都？他不应该是这个样子
He’s supposed to look like this.
他应该像这样
Let’s get this out of the way:
让我们来寻找答案
Ancient Greece and Rome were really colorful.
古希腊和古罗马是色彩斑斓的
Their buildings were full of intricate frescoes and elaborate mosaics
他们的建筑满是复杂的壁画和精美的马赛克
and covered with vibrantly painted statues
覆盖着生动鲜艳的雕塑
Of things like epic battles, glimmering gods, and pretty flowers.
诸如史诗战争 闪闪发光的神明 还有鲜艳的花朵
But today, most of us picture something more like this
然而现在 我们大部分人的印象无非就是
– brilliant white marble as far as the eye can see.
望不到头的白色宏伟大理石
We’re wrong. But it’s not our fault.
我们错了 但这怨不得我们
It’s Hollywood’s fault
这得怪好莱坞
And our high school textbooks’ fault.
还得怪我们的高中课本
But most of all, it’s this guy’s fault.
但罪魁祸首是他
Well, not him. He’s just a statue.
哦不 不是说他 他只是一座雕塑
The blame lies with Michelangelo, the guy who sculpted him
是说他的创作者米开朗基罗
– And with many others
他和许多其他雕塑家
who made white marble statues during the Renaissance.
在文艺复兴时期 他们都用白色大理石进行创作
When European artists, philosophers, and scientists
当时 欧洲的艺术家 哲学家和科学家们
developed a renewed interest in the creations of classical Greece and Rome.
对古希腊和古罗马作品重新燃起了兴趣
Artists like Michelangelo
像米开朗基罗这样的艺术家们
began studying Roman sculptures
开始研究罗马雕塑
– like this one: “Laocoön and his Sons.”
比如这个 《拉奥孔和他的儿子们》
They fell in love with its lifelike figures,
他们痴迷于它栩栩如生的造型
dramatic scene, and pristine, white surface.
戏剧性的场景 还有质朴洁白的表面
But sculptures like this weren’t meant to be white.
但是这些雕塑原本并不是白色的
Their paint had just faded
它们表面的颜色褪去
after being buried or left out in the open air for hundreds of years.
是因为历经数百年的掩埋或是暴露于空气中
So when the Renaissance artists set out to imitate them,
文艺复兴时期的艺术家们模仿这些雕塑
they left their masterpieces bare too.
不对自己的作品进行着色
And that style took over inspiring generations of sculptors.
这种风格影响了数代雕塑家
White marble became the norm.
白色大理石成为了行规
Along the way, art historians reinforced this bias.
一路沿袭下来 艺术史家又加深了这种偏见
Namely this guy – Johann Joachim Winckelmann
这个人 约翰·约阿辛·温克尔曼
He’s sometimes known as the father of Art history.
他有时被称为艺术史之父
In the 18th century,
在18世纪
he wrote a hugely influential book on ancient art.
他写下了大量影响深远的关于古代艺术的书籍
In it he argued that statues like this one
在著作中他对雕塑发表这类见解
– the Apollo of Belvedere – were the epitome of beauty.
《贝尔维德雷的阿波罗》 是艺术美的典范
Because, “the whiter the body is, the more beautiful it is.”
因为“他的身体越白 就显得越美”
He went out of his way to ignore obvious evidence of colored marble,
他坚持己见 对彩色大理石证据选择了忽视
And there was a lot of it,
有很多这方面的证据
especially after the re-discovery of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii in the 1700s.
特别是在1700年代重新发现古罗马庞贝城之后
Pompeii’s near perfectly preserved frescoes,
庞贝城那些几乎完整保存的壁画
featured all sorts of colored statues.
展示着各种各样的彩色雕塑
And one particular mural
有幅特别的壁画
of an artist in the act of painting a sculpture.
展示了一位艺术家正在给雕塑上色
This colorful sculpture was also found in Pompeii.
而这个雕塑也在庞贝被发现了
Winckelmann claimed it was too primitive
温克尔曼认为这个雕塑太原始了
to have been made by them.
不可能是古罗马人创作的
But evidence wasn’t just ignored.
但是证据不会就这样被忽视
Some of it might have been destroyed.
有些雕塑可能已经被破坏
Remember Augustus?
还记得奥古斯都吗？
When archaeologists rediscovered him in the 1860s,
当考古学家在1860年代重新发现他时
they said his tunic was crimson,
他们认为他的短袍是深红色的
his armor was yellow,
他的盔甲是黄色的
and his “mantle” (that’s this thing) was purple.
他的“披风”（我手指的这个）是紫色的
And this is him now.
现在他成了这样
It’s unclear if Augustus lost his color by accident,
我们不清楚 他是因为过度清洗
as a result of over-cleaning,
意外丢失了颜色
or if it was removed on purpose.
还是被故意抹掉了颜色
But either way,
无论哪种情况
the same thing happened to a bunch of other famous monuments and sculptures.
类似事情也发生在其他著名的纪念碑和雕塑上
Like the Parthenon in Athens
比如雅典的帕特农神庙
– which once looked something like this.
曾经看上去是这样的
By the 18th century, it had faded to something more like this,
到了18世纪 颜色逐渐消退 变成了这样
with just hints of color left.
只留下一些色彩的痕迹
But today, even those are gone.
然而现今 就连这些痕迹也消失了
Luckily, art historians have since shifted to believe
幸好艺术史家们之后转变了观念
that it’s not about what people think looks better.
重要的是它本来的模样
It’s about what’s accurate.
并非人们认为怎样更好看
But how do they get from this to this?
但是他们如何实现从白色到彩色的重建呢？
To start, there are some surviving ancient descriptions of more famous sculptures,
首先 在一些留存的古籍中会有著名雕塑的描述
which is how we know that
我们因此得知
the Parthenon once held a statue of the goddess Athena
帕特农神庙曾有过女神雅典娜雕塑
that was “ivory and gold”
它是“乳白和金色的”
wearing a helmet adorned with “a likeness of the sphynx”
戴着“斯芬克斯式的头盔”
And If you look closely at some sculptures,
如果你仔细观察某些雕塑
there are still obvious traces of color
仍然可以发现明显的彩色痕迹
like the remnants of deep purple on this statue’s clothing.
比如这个雕塑的衣服有深紫色的痕迹
That’s how early reconstructions like these were made.
早期重建工作就是这么做的
Today, scientists can extract and test those tiny samples
如今 科学家们能从小块样本中
to determine the original pigments used.
提取并检测出原先使用的颜料
But when there aren’t any visible colors,
当肉眼无法识别出颜色时
they have another tool: Ultraviolet light.
他们有另一种工具 紫外线灯
Certain pigments glow under UV light,
某些颜料在紫外线下会发光
exposing traces that would have been otherwise invisible.
提示了肉眼看不到的颜色
When scientists photographed this archer’s legs under UV light,
当科学家们将这个弓箭手的腿部置于紫外线灯下
They saw this: a dizzying array of geometric patterns and saturated colors.
他们看到眼花缭乱的几何图案和鲜亮的颜色
And when they compared it to trace pigments on a similar statue,
他们将其与类似雕塑相比较 推测它的颜色
they were able to make this reconstruction.
通过这种方式来重建这个雕塑
Which, to be clear, is about as ancient as mine
声明一下 这个重建品也就和我手里的一样“古老“吧
Because conservationists never add color to the original
因为文物保护主义者从不会将颜色直接涂到原作上
– they use 3D scanners to create plaster replicas.
他们用3D扫描仪做出石膏复制品
Which they then painstakingly repaint,
然后精心上色
with far greater accuracy than I can.
当然比我画得精细多了
Seeing these sculptures in full color
看到这些色彩缤纷的雕塑
might be a little shocking at first
一开始可能会有些震惊
But that’s probably because
不过那可能只是因为
we’ve only seen them one way for centuries.
数百年来我们只见过白色大理石
To the Greeks and Romans,
对于古罗马和古希腊人而言
painting a sculpture made it complete.
给雕塑上完色才算是完成了
Color could make marble seem human, or godlike.
色彩能使大理石看上去更富人情味和更神圣
It infused them with drama and emotion.
给雕塑注入戏剧性和感情
It brought history and mythology to life
将历史和神话变得生动
And even though these reconstructions aren’t perfect,
即使这些重建并不完美
Seeing these statues in color
看到这些彩色的雕塑
can bring us a little closer to understanding
能让我们进一步认识
what the ancient world might have looked like.
古代世界可能是怎么样的