Cecilie Brøns
Introduction
Gold is a precious metal. Its chemical symbol, Au, is derived from the Latin aurum, meaning gold. It has been used since antiquity in the production of jewellery, coin-age, figurines and vessels as well as for the decoration of buildings, monuments, furniture and statues. It was also used in the ancient Mediterranean for textiles, either woven into garments or for their decoration. Though not uncommon, the practice of using expensive gold thread to embellish textiles was reserved for textiles belonging to people from the highest social strata. The manufacture of gold thread began very early: there is mention of golden textiles in the Old Testament,2 though they appear to have become especially popular during and after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century CE. Although evidence for these textiles exists in antiquity, there is still little known about them or how they looked. This paper therefore aims for the first time to develop new insights into their use from the 5th century BCE to the 5th century CE.
It does so by investigating and collating three primary sources of evidence: iconography; the textiles found in archaeological contexts; and written sources both literary
and epigraphic. These three sources offer different insights into the use of gold in textiles. The archaeological record sheds important light on the different techniques used in textile production; the written evidence, particularly from the Roman period, confirms their existence and demon-strates that they were primarily worn by Roman emperors and empresses. However, neither archaeology nor the written word can provide specific information about their use and appearance, and it is here that ancient iconography comes into its own by providing insights unavailable from other sources.
Iconography is, in fact, an overlooked but invaluable source of evidence in the study not only of golden tex-tiles but of coloured textex-tiles in general. Indeed, a closer examination of the polychrome decoration of sculptures, figurines and reliefs can provide unique insights into both the use of gold in textiles and their various colours and dec-oration. Thus, the many depictions of garments in various media, such as reliefs, figurines, sculpture, wall-paintings and mosaics, sometimes include depictions of what ought to be interpreted as golden textiles. Although the original colours of many of these depictions no longer survive, Abstract
Golden textiles1 were significant across the ancient Mediterranean from the Archaic period (or perhaps even earlier) to Late Antiquity, i.e. from the 5th century BCE to the 5th century CE. By comparing and contrast -ing three primary sources – iconography, archaeological material and written sources (both literary and epigraphic) – this paper shows that the use of such extravagant textiles was far more extensive than previously assumed. Furthermore, as this paper will demonstrate, the images, particularly those found in iconography, offer compelling information about how these garments actually looked and were worn (and by whom), leading to a significantly better understanding of ancient garments and their versatility. This enhances the interpretation of both the archaeological finds and the descriptions found in the written sources.
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new advances in polychromy research can provide insights into their original colours and decoration.
Through combining these three sources of evidence, iconography, the textiles from archaeological discoveries and written sources, this paper will argue that golden textiles were not only present in antiquity from around 500 BCE–500 CE, but also formed a more significant aspect of the wardrobe of high-status men and women than hith-erto thought. Moreover, this paper reveals how the images found in iconography offer compelling evidence about the way these garments actually looked and were worn, and by whom. This leads to a significantly better understanding of ancient garments and their versatility. Likewise, it will help in the interpretation of both the archaeological finds and the descriptions found in the written sources.
Golden garments in art: Ancient polychromy3 Ancient iconography is the only source that can provide solid evidence as to the original appearance of these gar-ments. Iconographic sources are of course not without their attendant problems and pitfalls, including the question whether these images illustrate either ‘real’ or ‘imaginary’
dress. How far, for example, do the images of clothed men and women from ancient Greece and Rome truly represent the clothes that men and women wore in real life? Do they instead depict an idealised version of Greco-Roman dress?
Furthermore, although plenty of garments exist in both wall-paintings and vase paintings, these depictions seldom reveal whether the decoration shows the use of true gold or
‘simply’ a woven or embroidered decoration in fibres dyed to look like gold. A famous example of this is the wall-painting in the Franҫois tomb at Vulci, where Vel Saties is displayed in a mantle thought to be a toga picta (a ceremonial toga usually worn by triumphant generals after victorious cam-paigns) with figured decoration. However, although written sources indicate that the toga picta was embroidered with gold, it is impossible to tell from the depiction in question whether this was indeed the case.4
However, depictions in other media can help to establish the true appearance of golden textiles. Thus, ancient art works, such as marble sculptures, can provide important information about the original appearance of ancient garments even though most marble sculptures exhibited in museum collections around the globe appear to be entirely white. These sculptures were, however, originally painted with a bright arrangement of colours to make them appear as life-like as possible. Regrettably, most surviving pieces have lost their colours primarily because of poor preservation conditions, exposure to light and radiation, the fragility of the paint and, not least, the cleaning methods applied before or after the artefacts entered the museum (or private) collection.5 Nevertheless,
although traces of the original polychromy are typically microscopic in size and very fragile, more advanced ana-lytical methods, particularly in the natural sciences, can add new knowledge, for example by making it possible to identify pigments, binding agents, painting techniques and provenance. Modern polychromy research has thus become a highly interdisciplinary endeavour, involv-ing archaeologists, conservators, chemists, physicists, geo-chemists and geologists, among others.
An operating microscope6 is a useful tool for identifying the use of even minuscule remains of gold. Microscopy can be supplemented with X-ray fluorescence (XRF), an extremely important analytical method in the research of colour. This can be carried out with a handheld apparatus, is non-invasive and does not damage the objects examined.
XRF is also used to identify elements and is particularly suited to the analysis of inorganic pigments as well as metals, including gold.
‘Fake gold’
Golden textiles were not only made using real gold but also with ‘fake’ gold pigment. Ancient painters, for example, employed the natural pigment orpiment, a canary-yellow sulphide of arsenic (As2S3) containing 60% arsenic, which produced a splendid and brilliant shade of yellow.7 The name ‘orpiment’ is derived from the Latin auripigmentum, literally ‘gold pigment’ (from aurum (‘gold’) and pigmentum (‘pigment’), confirming its use as a substitute for gold in ancient polychromy. It is mentioned by ancient authors such as Pliny who records the following:
There is also one other method of procuring gold; by making it from orpiment, a mineral dug from the surface of the earth in Syria and much used by painters. It is just the colour of gold, but brittle, like mirror-stone, in fact. This substance greatly excited the hopes of the Emperor Caius, a prince who was most greedy for gold. He accordingly had a large quantity of it melted, and really did obtain some excellent gold; but then the proportion was so extremely small that he found himself a loser thereby. Such was the result of an experiment prompted solely by avarice: and this too, although the price of the orpiment itself was no more than four denarii per pound. Since his time, the experiment has never been repeated.8
Orpiment had been used since ancient times as a pigment in painting and for polychrome sculpture, even though it was not permanent and was toxic. There is also evi-dence for its use in polychromy from Middle and New Kingdom Egypt (16th–11th centuries BCE) where it was found in the painted decoration of wooden coffins and stelae.9 Later examples include a marble pyxis10 in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. The pyxis is dated to the second half of the 5th century BCE and bears a battle scene with two polychrome chariots and
9. All that glitters is gold: Golden textiles in the ancient Mediterranean 123 charioteers fighting against two armed warriors. Orpiment
was identified in its decoration, together with hematite (red) and goethite (yellow), cinnabar and lapis lazuli.11 So far, however, the use of orpiment to represent garments in ancient polychromy has not been identified, a situation which may quickly change as more ancient polychrome artefacts are examined.
Ancient gilding techniques
Gilding with gold leaf or foil was used on artefacts made out of different materials, including stone, terracotta, stucco and bronze.12 The earliest form of gilding was fire-gilding, whereby a layer of gold was applied to the surface of a less rare metal, a technique that goes back to the 3rd millennium BCE.13 However, the most common method of gilding during antiquity was the bolus technique (also known as ‘bole’ technique), whereby the gold leaf was usually applied onto a preparatory layer of very refined fine clayish earth pigment (bolus) in different colours (often red, orange or yellow),14 using an adhesive such as an animal or vegetable glue. Since these organic glues have degraded with time, the gilding has often disappeared, leaving only tiny remains on surfaces, particularly in folds and crevices.15 The red or yellow preparatory layers are now often the only surviving evidence (if any) of former gilding.16 Gilding is mentioned by Pliny (NH 33.20) who described how gilding was applied to marble with egg white, and to wood with a glutinous composition known as leucophoron.
The grave monument of Phrasikleia
The grave statue of Phrasikleia, dated to 520 BCE, pro-vides an example of the use of gilding in the iconography of ancient textiles.17 This statue shows a standing young woman (a kore18) dressed in a richly ornamented garment;
on the skin and garment are numerous traces of polychromy.
Analysis of this polychromy has revealed the use of red and yellow ochres, lead white, brown madder, vine black and orpiment.19 Red and yellow ochre and orpiment were used for her dress, while the rosettes and shining yellow swastikas scattered over the garment were painted with orpiment and yellow ochre. Moreover, gold leaf (and lead tin foil) was applied to her garment and jewellery, as well as possibly her belt.20 The gold leaf and the use of orpiment to create a ‘fake gold’ was meant to imitate gold ornaments sewn onto the garment. Parallels for such textile ornaments, often in the shape of roundels decorated with rosettes, are found in the archaeological record, primarily in burial contexts such as in the tomb of the ‘Lady of Archontiko’ at Pella (c. 540–530 BCE). Here three gold rosettes and four plaques shaped like double triangles were recovered on the upper part of the torso, three rosettes on the abdomen and a silver plaque and two gold plaques with vegetal decoration
and two small gold rosettes on the thighs. Finally, two small gold rosettes were found near her feet, probably originally intended to adorn her shoes.21 Gold rosettes and decorated plaques were also found in contexts that date from the Hellenistic Period.22
Tanagra figurines
The Greek Tanagra terracotta figurines provide rich evidence about the colours of ancient dress because their polychromy is often relatively well preserved and sometimes includes gilding.
A terracotta figurine discovered in the collections of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek provides a particularly interesting example of the use of gilding on clothing. This figurine of a standing woman, dated to the 3rd century BCE, is unfor-tunately of unknown provenance but clearly belongs to the well-known group of figurines from Tanagra (Fig. 9.1).23 It was previously suspected of being a forgery24 but recent analysis of its polychromy has identified the use of ancient pigments, including Egyptian blue, and painting tech-niques, which has ruled out the possibility of a modern manufacture.25
The figurine is shown wearing a chiton (a form of tunic made from two large rectangles sewn up the sides) of various colours. The polychromy is degraded and it is therefore difficult to interpret the decoration. Microscopic examination reveals the use of pink, purple and blue colours superimposed upon each other. In addition, the chiton has white horizontal decoration (in stripes?) in a rectangular area on its front. Lastly, gilding is used for a horizontal gold border at the lower edge of the chiton (Fig. 9.2.a) and perhaps also in other scattered traces of what may originally have been vertical stripes or scattered decoration. On top of the chiton, the figurine wears a himation26 (a mantle or wrap) with a broad purple border and a narrower gilded border near the garment’s edge (Fig. 9.2.b). The colour of the remaining part of the himation cannot be determined without further analysis.
This figurine illustrates the rich and varied ways that gold might be used for textiles: the borders of himatia and chitones, as well as further decoration (in this case, of the chiton) which might represent gold weaving or embroidery.
Furthermore, this example is a reminder that figurines, which at first glance appear to be ‘simply’ painted, could also include gilding, which is sometimes only preserved in the minutest of traces.
Garments embellished with gold have been recovered on other Tanagra figurines of standing women. The most significant example is the so-called ‘Lady in Blue Group’.
This group consists of four figurines recovered from a tomb near Tanagra and dated to c. 330–300 BCE. After their discovery, they were divided between the Louvre,27 the British Museum,28 Staatliche Museen Berlin29 and
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Fig. 9.1. Tanagra figurine. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, inv. no. IN 895. Photo: Ole Haupt.
Fig. 9.2. A. Microscope image showing the horizontal gold border at the lower edge of the chiton. Magnification: 10X. Photo: Signe Buccarella Hedegaard.
9. All that glitters is gold: Golden textiles in the ancient Mediterranean 125
the Hermitage.30 The figurines all wear similar garments in similar colours. Those in the Louvre and in Berlin wear a blue chiton underneath a himation with a broad gilded border (Fig. 9.3.a–b).31 The polychromy of the Hermitage figurine differs in terms of the gilding which covers a large part of the himation instead of being used to emphasise the border. Thus the figurine is represented in a blue chiton with a white rectangle and a gilded himation with a blue border.
Except for the figurine in the British Museum, all the ones in this group are embellished with a considerable amount of gilding in contrast to the other Tanagra figurines where the gilding (if deemed to have been present) was often limited to the figurine’s accessories.32
Examinations of Tanagra figurines in the Louvre, including the ‘Lady in Blue’, have shown that the gilding was often carried out with the ‘bolus’ (bole) technique, described above.33 In the case of the ‘Lady in Blue’, this was supplemented by the additional refinement of burnish-ing. On the wide gilded band decorating the himation, the gold has an extraordinary glow to it, a finish obviously achieved by polishing with a hard stone. The gold leaf has been applied to a ground of fine-grained yellow ochre.34 In all the Tanagra figurines, the gilding method used was gold
on bolus, the gold leaf being made from fine gold (99.9%) which was first applied onto a thin layer of yellow ochre containing goethite before being burnished with a tool.35 In no instance was there any trace of orpiment on the figurines studied.36
These examples illustrate the varied ways in which gold could be used for ancient textiles: primarily for borders of himatia and chitones but also for the main part of himatia, as well as for the additional decoration of chitones. It seems that precious materials such as gold leaf could also be used on relatively cheap objects such as terracottas.
Greco-Roman marble sculpture
Greco-Roman marble sculpture provides further important information about the iconographic record of gilded gar-ments even though gilding on Roman marble statuary has generally been viewed as a decorative embellishment of lim-ited value.37 The following section shows this not to be the case.38 As with the terracotta figurines, interpreting the use of gold in iconography can be problematic, most importantly because gilding is used in ways that do not reflect reality such as in portraying highlights in hair, accessories and even skin, as well as in representing textiles. Nevertheless, other Fig. 9.2. B. Microscope image showing a broad purple border and a narrower gilded border near edge of the himation. Magnification:
10X. Photo: Signe Buccarella Hedegaard.
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examples exist where gilding has clearly been used for the embellishment of sculpted garments, thus leaving no doubt that it represents golden textiles.
A somewhat surprising example of this practice is the seated statue of the goddess Kybele in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Fig. 9.4).39 This statue was recovered in a sanc-tuary at Formiae, Italy and has been dated to c. 60 BCE. It was recently examined thoroughly and its traces of poly-chromy were extensively analysed.40 Besides a wealth of polychromy in pinks, purples and blues on her garments, the analyses revealed minute traces of gilding on the border and tassels of her mantle (Fig. 9.5). It has now been estab-lished that the statue was originally made wearing a heavily decorated costume with gilded ornamentation.
Another Roman example is a colossal statue of a naked male from the Hadrianic Baths at Aphrodisias who prob-ably represents the hero Achilles. The statue is shown wearing a massive hanging chlamys (a type of ancient Greek cloak) which preserves faint, but extensive, vestiges of the red pigment cinnabar. Furthermore, a fragmentary white calcium carbonate ground on the garment’s border, Fig. 9.3. A. Tanagra figurine, dressed in a blue chiton underneath a
himation with a broad gilded border, 330–300 BCE. Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz. inv. no.
TC 7674. Photo: Johannes Laurentius.
Fig. 9.3. B. Tanagra figurine, dressed in blue chiton with a white rectangle and a gilded himation with a blue border. 330–300 BCE.
The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, inv. no. GR-5249 (G-435). © The State Hermitage Museum. Photo: Yuri Molodkovets.
9. All that glitters is gold: Golden textiles in the ancient Mediterranean 127
topped with yellow and red ochre, was presumed to have been gilded.41
There are also several examples of gilding on Delian sculptures, most likely due to the large number of sculptures and figurines examined from this particular site.42 The bole technique is once again encountered on gilding used on the Delian marble and terracotta artefacts. This technique involves sticking very thin gold leaf onto a coloured ground made of ochre which on Delos is usually a fine yellow ochre.
There are also several examples of gilding on Delian sculptures, most likely due to the large number of sculptures and figurines examined from this particular site.42 The bole technique is once again encountered on gilding used on the Delian marble and terracotta artefacts. This technique involves sticking very thin gold leaf onto a coloured ground made of ochre which on Delos is usually a fine yellow ochre.