In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

155 4 Painting Preservation of paint on antique monuments depends on various factors: the pigments, the binder, and to a great extent, the substrate material. Paint pigments behave differently on a marble surface than they do on a softer stone,1 and so the investigative techniques employed must be selected accordingly. The Chersonesos grave stelai were made mostly from the soft local limestone. There are a few exceptions, such as one marble stele of a later date (Fig. 4.1), and a few separately produced marble anthemia (Nos. CR1–3), all without any traces of color. Limestone, although relatively easy to carve, can never be polished to the smoothness of a comparable piece of marble, and therefore does not retain “color-negative” traces of the type often found on marble surfaces where paint has been weathered or chipped away.2 It is therefore not surprising that techniques like UV reflectography or UV-fluorescent light photography met with definite success only in a few cases, including No. 25 (Fig. 4.2) and No. 53. Convincing results under UV light (Nos. 50–51 and 70–72) did occur where the raw surface of the limestone had been covered with a smooth layer of plaster (Fig. 3.2), but such additional coatings were far from the rule (Fig. 4.3). On the other hand, the uneven surface of the limestone facilitated the adhesion of larger deposits of paint pigment. These deposits could be detected by color macrophotography (Fig. 4.4), which is thus one of the most important methods of investigation. The applied paint also often protected the surface of the stone beneath. Once the paint itself disappeared through exposure to the elements, it left what is known as a “weathering relief.” Under strong raking light, the once-painted sections appear slightly raised from the rest of the surface. This effect, sometimes wrongly described as “flat relief,”3 can frequently be observed on the grave stelai of Chersonesos (Fig. 4.5), 1 Brinkmann 2003, 27–31; Posamentir 2006, 108–10; Brinkmann/ Wünsche 2007, 211–15. 2 Brinkmann 1987, 42–44, Figs. 3–4; Brinkmann 2003, 28. 3 For example, Solomonik/Antonova 1974, 100. although the edges of the weathering relief are not nearly as sharply defined as is the case with residue from paintings on marble surfaces.4 Nonetheless, these traces helped identify and classify objects that had once been rendered only in paint. Many staffs and taeniae were made visible through this technique, but without doubt the most striking example is that of the stele of a physician named Dionysios (No. 52). Raking light revealed five otherwise invisible medical devices surviving in the form of weathering reliefs, even though hardly a trace of their former coloring remained (Fig. 4.6).5 Even when the weathering relief from the once-painted object is no longer detectable, it is still sometimes possible to find partially altered surface finishes that indicate the former presence of paint, such as No. 29 (Fig. 4.7). In other cases, paint residue is still present, but the surrounding surface has suffered so much damage that the ribbon or piece of athletic equipment still seems to be slightly raised when viewed under raking light (Fig. 4.5). This is distinct from the highly paste-like appearance that often characterizes other paint traces, such as the inscriptions on gravestones of the Sannion workshop (Nos. 1–5, Fig. 4.8). Because weathering affects different paints at different rates, another phenomenon, often erroneously called “painting in reserve,” can sometimes be seen on the Chersonesan stelai. In this situation the red or blue background is preserved, but where painted ornaments —or in the case of the sarcophagi, the painted animals—once were, only the light stone itself can now be seen (Fig. 4.9).6 It was not possible to detect any new inscriptions with raking light photography, probably because of the composition of the paint used for lettering. The black pigment regularly used for inscriptions by the Sannion workshop was applied in nearly paste form, which evidently chipped off relatively soon and left 4 Posamentir 2006, Cat. 37. 5 Posamentir 2006a, 54–58, Figs. 55, 58–59. 6 Posamentir 2006a, 70, Fig. 77. 156 Chersonesan Studies 1: The Polychrome Grave Stelai little residue. However, strong raking light did reveal a variety of incisions. These provided additional assistance in deciphering an image and will be discussed in the following section. Incised lines Incised lines have been observed on painted grave stelai in many...

Share