Jewell, Victoria Catherine (2022) Concepts of colour in ancient Greek art and culture. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the ways in which the conception of colour in ancient Greek society differed from our modern understanding, and how a deeper investigation of the theoretical structure of ancient cognition of colour can affect and enhance our interaction with the art and literature of ancient Greece. Previous scholarship rarely focuses on polychromy as its primary study, though discrepancies and subtleties in the handling of colour terminology in literature, or the complex nature of colour used on surviving examples of material culture have been noted. This study places the intrinsic relationship ancient Greek society had with colour at its forefront, and constructs a framework through which we might understand the different connections and associations that they built. In scope, within the bounds of surviving material, this thesis aims to focus on evidence from both the art and text of the Archaic and Classical periods, and upon the societies of mainland Greece, predominantly that of Athens. Source material has been used beyond these delineations as necessary to provide both a richer understanding of the main focus and relevant comparanda.

Colour conception is explored in three ways. The first investigates the relationship between colours and the physical commodity used to produce them. This detaches our modern understanding of colour as contiguous and infinitely varied, and investigates colours that are tethered to their source material. In contrast, the second section explores terms which are not attached to any colourant, nor, in fact, any hue. This offers a theoretical explanation for why this structure of designating colours chromatically, intrinsic to modern conception, was not compulsory, necessary, nor often used in the Greek lexicon. Finally, the third approach takes this further, to dig into the fundamental conception of how colours and the world around them were constructed, and the ways in which that understanding affected the ancient Greek approach to the theory of colour.

At its conclusion, this thesis argues that not just an appreciation of the existence of colour, but an understanding of the structure of the cognition of ancient polychromy can enhance our understanding of this visual language, a means of communication through a complex web of associations and connotations built up by shared cultural memory and graphic tradition.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DF Greece N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR N Fine Arts > NB Sculpture N Fine Arts > NK Decorative arts Applied arts Decoration and ornament
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Art, Ancient -- Greece, Art, Greek. Color in art, Polychromy -- Greece, Color in design, Civilization, Classical
Official Date:	May 2022
Dates:	Date Event May 2022 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Classics and Ancient History
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Scott, Michael, 1981- ; Newby, Zahra
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	xv, 314 pages : colour illustrations
Language:	eng

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