Write about anything?

For my free blog post I thought I would write about something cool I stumbled across that is happening here at Harvard, more specifically at the Harvard Art Museum. Before I even get to my point, I have to say that if you haven't been to our art museum, please go. It's right on campus and has works by amazing artists, including Monet, Picasso, Cezanne, Dali, Polluck, Rubens, and Miro, just to name a few.

Look at how close it is.

I actually have a point, I promise. In the art museum, we have many majestic, ancient, white marble statues such as the one of Hypatia below:

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However, these statues weren't always monochromatic. At some point, each statue was brightly painted (they even had noses at some point). A group of art historians used paint chips left of sculptures along with UV scans to figure out what colors some ancient art pieces were originally painted, and here are the results:

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Although this exhibit is no longer featured at our art museum, research is continuously happening. In the mean time, the recreations are causing quite a stir. Some like seeing the art in its original intention, while others say the bright colors ruin the elegant image of ancient art. What do you prefer?

*Bonus fun fact: some of the ancient roman statues show evidence of having once been painted with bright, colorful hair, suggesting that the ancient romans used colorful dyes in their own hair.