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mopsi • last Thursday at 2:07 PM • 2 replies • view on HN

  > They are scientists and conservators doing their best
Perhaps they're simply the wrong people for this problem? I'd very much prefer to see how artists would approach painting the figures, instead of scientists and conservators. Give them the tools that were available at the time and let them do their best.

Even if tastes have indeed changed, something that matches our current taste will reproduce the impact of the statues better than a scientifically meticulous and factually accurate depiction that misses the emotional truth.

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the_af • last Thursday at 2:25 PM

> Give them the tools that were available at the time and let them do their best.

The end result would surely look better, but how would we be assured it resembled historical reality?

Do we know for a fact in these reconstructions there is no input whatsoever from artists? I know, for example, that paleo-artists are responsible for the reconstruction of what dinosaurs are currently thought to have looked like, and they are mostly artists that work in collaboration with scientists directing their work. Why do we think this is not the case for the reconstruction of colors of Roman statues?

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DrewADesign • last Thursday at 5:08 PM

The two aren’t mutually exclusive.