The new corpus of painted Imperial Roman marble reliefs from Nicomedia: a preliminary report on polychromy

Journal article

This paper presents an initial report on the extant polychromy on the remarkable series of Roman marble state relief sculptures excavated at a newly discovered Tetrarchic imperial building complex in Nicomedia (Turkey). The reliefs, featuring imperial and other diverse subject matters, retain extensive ancient coloration. A brief discussion of the history of the discovery and excavations surrounding these reliefs and the current Tübitak Archaeological Project is followed with a discussion of their polychromy. Preliminary observations about the painting technique, the range of colors and the palette of pigments and patterning are presented, before focusing on the use of color in the dress of the imperial costumes of the emperors. These exceptional painted state reliefs afford key new insights into the nexus of art, color-coding, sculpture, and court ritual in later Roman culture.

Authors: Abbe, MB; Şare Ağtürk, T

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: OpenEdition
• Journal: Technè
• Volume: 48
• Pages: 100-109
• Publication date: 2019-12-31
• DOI: 10.4000/techne.2567
• EISSN: 2750-6185
• ISSN: 2750-6185
• Language: English
• Keywords: Extant taxon; Visual arts; Sculpture; History; Art; Archaeology; Palette (painting); Painting; Polychrome