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CLOSEDocumentation, analysis, interpretation, and reconstruction of Greek painting through innovative diagnostic and digital technologies
Hariclia Brecoulaki
Confronting ancient Greek painting demands more than technical analysis or aesthetic appreciation; it requires negotiating the interplay of presence and absence—between what survives, what remains hidden, and what is lost. Advances in imaging, materials science, and machine learning have rendered the non-visible visible, providing unprecedented means to access, analyze, and virtually reconstitute artworks once deemed irrecoverable. Through the integration of scientific analysis, digital inpainting, and historical interpretation within a transparent and reversible framework, new digital reconstructions achieve both analytical precision and visual resonance. The aims of the study are the documentation, analysis, interpretation, and reconstruction of Greek painting through innovative diagnostic and digital technologies
Main ongoing projects:
- Wall paintings of Hall 64, Mycenaean Palace of Pylos (Department of Classics, University of Cincinnati, Ephorate of Antiquities of Messinia)
- Archaic wooden panels from the Cave of Pitsa, Corinthia (National Archaeological Museum)
- The hunting frieze from the Tomb of Philip II, archaeological site of Aigai (Ephorate of Antiquities of Emathia)
- The wall painting depicting the abduction of Persephone, archaeological site of Aigai (Ephorate of Antiquities of Emathia)
- Painted decoration and polychromy of Macedonian tombs in ancient Mieza (Ephorate of Antiquities of Emathia)
- Painted decoration and polychromy of the Macedonian tomb of Amphipolis-Kasta (Hellenic Ministry of Culture)
- H. Brecoulaki, Ch. Simatos, “Reconstructing Ancient Greek Painting in the Age of AI: Visualizing the Aigai Hunt Frieze”, in O. Bombou, R. Raja and E. Barker, Oxford Handbook forDigital Classical Studies, forthcoming.
- H. Βrecoulaki (ed.), Archaeology of Colour. Technical Studies in Greek and Roman painting and polychromy, ΜΕΛΕΤΗΜΑΤΑ 87, Athens 2023.
- H. Brecoulaki et al. “Eclectic Uses of Egyptian Blue in Greek Painting: A Versatile Painting Material”, in H. Brecoulaki (ed.), Archaeology of Colour. Technical Studies in Greek and Roman Painting and Polychromy, MELETHMATA 87, Athens 2023, 313-348.
- H. Brecoulaki, G. Verri, M. Kalaitzi, Y. Maniatis and M. Lilimpaki-Akamati, “Investigating Colors and Techniques on the Wall Paintings of the ‘Tomb of the Philosophers’, an Early Hellenistic Macedonian Monumental Cist Tomb in Pella (Macedonia, Greece)”, Heritage2023,6, 5619-5647. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6080296
- H. Brecoulaki, A. Karydas, V. Perdikatsis, M. P. Colombini, “Re-presenting in colours at the ‘Palace of Nestor’: Original polychromy and painting materials”, in J. Bennet, Material and Immaterial Modes of Communication in the Bronze Age Aegean, Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology, Oxford and Philadelphia 2021, 53-106.
- H. Brecoulaki, G. Verri, B. Bourgeois, F. P. Romano, A. G. Karydas, C. Caliri, E. Matin-Gonzalez, G. Kavvadias, “The lost art of Archaic Greek painting: revealing new evidence on the Pitsa pinakes through MA-XRF and imaging techniques”, Techné 48, 2019, 35-54.
https://journals.openedition.org/techne/2046
Main page image: Archaeological site of Aigai. Facade of Philip II's Tomb. The hunting scene. From left to right: a). Detail from the hunting scene in the visible spectrum (© Ch. Simatos), b) Chemical surface scanning of the scene using X-ray fluorescence technique (XRAYlab, ISPC/CNR, Catania, INP "DEMOKRITOS"), c) Multispectral imaging (VIL), documenting the distribution of Egyptian Blue (© G. Verri), d) Digital reconstruction based on the results of the ReVis project. Detail. (© H. Brecoulaki).