Fantastic Colors: Polychrome Research in the Glyptotek's Collection from Roman Egypt

The Danish Egyptological Society and the Antiquities Museum invite you to a lecture with Cecilie Brøns, senior researcher and museum inspector at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. She shares her research on colors in antiquity – a fascinating insight into polychrome and the techniques used by artists in ancient funerary contexts.

The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek holds an exceptional collection of burial equipment from Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, including famous mummy portraits, gilded mummy masks, eleven rare plaster mummy busts, a mummy foot case, a grave portrait, and two extremely rare votive paintings. Over the past five years, the museum's polychrome research project has mapped this collection to uncover traces of original painting and color choices. The investigations have documented a rich spectrum of pigments and artistic methods, revealing important knowledge about workshops, geographical connections, and dating.

The lecture presents the research findings and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the museum's laboratory work – how original colors and techniques are identified and interpreted.