The Color of Monochrome Sculpture

This seminar examines how early modern sculptors working in monochrome materials like marble, bronze, wood, ivory, and clay, created the impression of life without the aid of color. We study the optical effects that Baroque sculptors employed to rival the mimetic illusionism of painting, and consider these in relation to the coloristic ambiguity - and often the insistent tactility - of works carved by Renaissance sculptors. By considering the value and limits of painterly paradigms for making and viewing sculpture, our investigation seeks to understand the strategies sculptors used to assert the autonomy of their colorless art.