Hidden Scenes in Ancient Etruscan Paintings Revealed
Eratosthenes writes:
So I have always enjoyed Etruscan art, even back in the day when it was fresh, as in fresh frescos. Unfortunately, the remnants now are mostly in tombs, and in bad shape. But it seems technology is coming to the rescue? News from Live Science, on the use of
a technique called multi-illumination hyperspectral extraction (MHX), which involves taking dozens of images in the visible, infrared and ultraviolet bands of light and processing them using statistical algorithms developed at the National Research Council of Italy in Pisa, said team member Vincenzo Palleschi, a senior researcher at the research council.
And, voila! If not a restored painting, a much closer to the original image!
Scientists using a new technique have uncovered the colorful and once-hidden scenes in paintings of the ancient Etruscans, a group of people who flourished on the Italian peninsula around 2,500 years ago at a time before Rome became powerful.
For instance, they found new details in a painting from the "Tomb of the Monkey" and scenes of an underworld in another work of art.
The Etruscans created detailed paintings, but the passage of time has meant that many of them are now only partly visible and that much of their color has been lost.
"A major issue is the significant loss of information on the polychromy [colors] of the preserved paintings, with special regard to some specific colors owing to their physical chemical composition," Gloria Adinolfi, a researcher at Pegaso Srl Archeologia Arte Archeometria (a research institute), said in a presentation given Jan. 8 at the virtual joint annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Society for Classical Studies.
The fact that some colors survive the passage of time better than others can give a distorted view of what ancient paintings looked like at the time they were painted, Adinolfi said. For example, some shades of green tend not to survive well, whereas red often does, she said. "Red oaks [sic] usually seem to be more resistant so that sometimes reds are dominant and alter the correct perception of the original polychromy of the pictorial decoration," Adinolfi said.
Yes, I do look forward to being able to utilize this technology on my family photo albums, many of which have suffered the fading of colors with the ravages of time. And, remember, the Estrucans were the ones who taught the Romans about government and social justice. Well, about government.
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