Exhibition presents ancient sculpture to audiences as never before: In vibrant color

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco is hosting Gods in Color: Polychromy in the Ancient World, an exhibition that presents ancient sculpture to Bay Area audiences as never before: in vibrant color. The exhibition reintroduces ‘polychromy’ – the painting of sculpture to dazzling and powerful effect. Defying the idea of the stark white marble of antiquity, the installation is the result of over 30 years of groundbreaking research in pigmentation of ancient sculpture by international scientists and archaeologists. On view at the Legion of Honor are nearly 40 reproductions of well-known Greek and Roman artworks painted in brightly colored authentic pigments, uniquely juxtaposed with 30 statues and carved reliefs from ancient Egypt, the Near East, Greece, and Rome from FAMSF’s’ own holdings, supplemented with magnificent loans from Californian and European collections. “Our visitors who imagine the classical