Roman sarcophagi use and reuse: colour application techniques and ancient repainting

Siotto E.

Roman marble sarcophagi  Use and reuse  Painting  Repainting  Pigments  Scientific analyses  Colour 

It is well known that some Roman marble sarcophagi were reused for new depositions already in Late Antiquity. Moreover, it has been ascertained that they were adapted for burials of local dignitaries in the Middle Ages. In some cases, their reuse involved repainting or re-plastering and new gilding, for example, in the Camposanto Monumentale in Pisa. Some Roman marble sarcophagi were reused for new depositions already in the Roman period. Typically, they underwent several changes and adaptations, such as repainting. Identifying a second painting on marble sarcophagi is not easy. However, the first analytical study of polychrome sarcophagi fabricated in Rome, which dates from the first half of the second to the end of the fourth century AD and is in the collection of the National Roman Museum in Rome, I observed that the presence on the same sarcophagus of two different techniques used to apply colour could serve as an indication of the second painting. Starting from the scientific examination of one of these sarcophagi, where the results exceeded our expectations since they allowed us to identify the presence of ancient repainting, this paper discusses other examples that could show the same feature or the contemporary use of different painting methods for pictorial effects, as well as substantiated reuse without traces of second polychromy.

Source: Archaeology of Colour. Technical Art History Studies in Greek and Roman Painting and Polychromy, edited by Brecoulaki H., pp. 325–352, 2023