The exhibition shows reconstructions of ancient greek and roman sculptures in color.
My mind kept coming to the restoration of the Ecce Homo. Probably not a fair comparison, there is a lot of research behind the exhibition and maybe it was just the strangeness of it.
One of the reconstructions was a side of a sarcophagus, the colors make the details stand out but not necessarily in a good way. The colors look so rudimentary compared to the intricacy of the sculpture. It made me think of the story of the Golden Buddha.
Some statues were reconstructed with a different technique. They were realistic, and a bit disturbing.
There were some questionable fashion choices
And a portrait of Caligula that my kids confused with Mark Zuckerberg.
I enjoyed the exhibition. It was playful and made you question assumptions and look at things from a different perspective. The polychromatic research is also interesting.
The botch restoration of the Ecce Homo gave a new life to the village in Spain (or so they say). If the technicolor statues bring more people to the museum, that’s not a bad thing.
This is just my personal opinion, go see for yourself. Chroma is open till March 23rd, 2023.
Other Random Things I liked
The book Papyrus: the invention of books in the ancient world by Irene Vallejo. This is a great book, well written, well researched, and so refreshing to read non-fiction in Spanish. I highly recommend it.
A simple recipe for frozen broccoli.
High Speed Wit beer with cheese curds at Café Hollander
The Lake House movie with Keanu Reeves. Ok, this is very cheesy but it has Chicago, Keanu, and references to Jane Austen.
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