Polychrome:
Polychrome is the “practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors.” The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. [Wikipedia]
Noted in “What if the ancient Greeks and Romans actually had terrible taste?” Philip Kennicott, WaPo:
In its new exhibition, the Met is pushing back against the general resistance, using speculative reconstructions by Vinzenz Brinkmann and his wife, Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, scholars based in Frankfurt, Germany, who have specialized in the study of what is called polychromy. These include a painted reconstruction of the Met’s sixth-century B.C. marble sphinx finial, in which the wings are red and blue with gilded feathers, the tail dipped in blue and the neck ornamented with a red-and-gold choker.
Well. Far be it for an artistic heathen like me to say anything. Harrumph.
