A Long Overdue Visit to the Met (Part 3)

The reconstructed Riace Warriors sizing each other up

Having not done any research before my visit, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that reproductions of the famed Riace Warriors were part of the Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color exhibit currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York City. Representing the two lifelike Classical Greek statues chanced upon by a vacationing diver off the southern coast of Provincia di Reggio Calabria on August 16, 1972, the reconstructed nude figures were colored and adorned with hypothetical armor and weaponry that may have once embellished the ancient statuary.

While not the same as viewing the originals, it was still fascinating to see what the heroic warriors, known as Riace A and Riace B, may have looked like in the 5th century BC. Unlike many Classical marble or terracotta figures, which still have visible traces of pigment on them, I was excited to learn that the Ancient Greeks and Romans painted their bronze statues as well. Aside from some unsightly graffiti on public monuments, I don’t recall ever seeing polychrome metallic statues before. I just assumed different metals, textures and inlaid materials were used to enliven the works.

The Riace replicas (Gallery 156), along with the other reconstructed antiquities, are interspersed throughout the Museum’s world-class Greek and Roman Art Galleries on the first floor. Other notable highlights include the reconstructions of a marble finial in the form of a sphinx (Gallery 154), the so-called Small Herculaneum Woman (Gallery 153), the marble archer in the costume of a horseman of the peoples to the north and east of Greece (Gallery 160), the marble statue of the goddess Artemis from Pompeii (Gallery 162), and the bronze statues of the Terme Boxer and the Terme Ruler (Gallery 162). The exhibit will run to March 26, 2023. 

Just to be clear, the actual Riace Bronzes are not at the Met, they are in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Reggio Calabria.

[See Part 1] [See Part 2]

Also see: Discovering the Riace Warriors

An artificial bronze patina was used to indicate skin color

Riace B wears a fox-skin skullcap (alopekis) and his dark brown hair was given a reddish hue. Riace A wears a gilded Corinthian helmet and, for variety, his Stygian locks were tinged with blue. The Warrior's eyes featured inlaid stone, lips and nipples were copper, and the teeth were formed from a sheet of silver 

Analysis showed that Riace A held a lance in his right hand and a heavy round shield with his left. Riace B held a light shield (pelta) and a bow & arrow in his left hand, and a downward pointing weapon, possibly an axe, with his right

Riace B's fox-skin skullcap (alopekis) was modeled
on examples found on the Parthenon Frieze in Athens

While the true identities of the figures are unknown, Riace B is believed to represent the Thracian King Eumolpos as he encounters and is murdered by Erechtheus, the mythical king of Athens, in the so-called Eleusinian War

Addendum: I'm including pictures of the reconstruction of a marble statue of a woman wrapping herself in a mantle (the so-called Small Herculaneum Woman) to give the reader an idea of how detailed and vibrant the colors on the statues can be. 

Notice how the greenish fabric of the mantle was painted
to look sheer at the elbow, right thigh, and stomach area