Colour Schemes and Surface Finish of the Roman Architectural Orders

7-9 November, 2022, at Wasem Kloster Engelthal

This conference will be streamed on Zoom. Please contact kkost@uni-mainz.de at your earliest convenience for the meeting ID and pass code. 

There will be no recorded version available.

This conference will explore the richness of colour and texture in Roman architecture. More specifically, it will consider colour schemes and surface finishes of the architectural orders in relation to regional variation, 'global' trends, and semantics.

Roman architects seem to have used a broad range of colour schemes, surface treatments, and a wide variety of materials with diverse tones and optical qualities. Moreover, they blended these things in seemingly unorthodox ways. For example, polished white marble, sometimes highlighted by gilding, was juxtaposed with rough stone textures. Dull stucco-coated columns and brick facades painted in monochrome red or yellow coexisted with lush veining and luxuriant vegetation emulated in paint.

The aim of this conference is to bring together scholars, working on different regions of the Roman empire, to discuss the striking plurality (or unity) of concepts of colour in Roman architecture.

Scientific Organisers:

PD Dr. Matthias Grawehr (JGU)

 

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Johannes Lipps (JGU)

 

Event Manager: Kumi-Raine Kost