Recent articles & book chapters
A Zotero database listing all the publications featured on this website since 2021 can be accessed here.
"Unveiling a painter’s palette: multianalytical investigation on pigment lumps from the Persepolis World Heritage Site"
Omid Oudbashi, Atefeh Shekofteh, Zohreh Chahardoli, Alexander Nagel, Hamid Fadaei and Morteza Hessari
npj Heritage Science, 2026, 14, 387.
Read more here: https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-026-02839-3
Published online - 28/07/2026.
"Integrated Imaging and Spectroscopic Analysis of Residual Polychromy on the Roman Sculptures of the National Archaeological Museum of Formia (LT), Italy"
Donata Magrini, Giovanni Bartolozzi, Roberta Iannaccone, Sara Lenzi, Elisabetta Neri, Stefano Legnaioli, Giulia Lorenzetti, and Paolo Liverani
Applied Sciences, 2026, 16(15), 7399.
Read more here: https://doi.org/10.3390/app16157399
Published online - 23/07/2026.
"A multi-technique investigative approach unveils new compositional insights into the Pompeian red in the Domus di Arianna"
Sofia Brizzi, Silvia Vettori, Matteo M.N. Franceschini, Iacopo Osticioli, Barbara Salvadori, Donata Magrini, Laura Chiarantini, Renata Picone, Arianna Spinosa and Cristiano Riminesi,
Journal of Cultural Heritage, 2026, 80, 459-469.
Read more here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2026.06.010
Published online - 06/07/2026.
"Frames in stone: The Parthenon frieze and the sequential choreography of architectural sculpture"
Ellie Mackin Roberts
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 2026, qbag026.
Read more here: https://doi.org/10.1093/bics/qbag026
Published online - 19/06/2026.
"Archaeometrical investigation of figurines from the ancient city of Akanthos in Chalkidice"
Svetlana Vivdenko, Eleni Trakosopoulou-Salakidou, Athina Vasileiadou, Lamprini Malletzidou, Vasiliki Michalopoulou, Telemachos-Grigorios Stamkopoulos, Nikolaos Zacharias
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2026, 73, 105878.
Read more here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2026.105878
Published online - 12/06/2026.
"Digital reconstructions of ancient polychromy on marble and stone surfaces: what the community expects and how it is achieved"
Eliana Siotto and Paolo Cignoni
Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, 2026, 42, e00563.
Read more here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.daach.2026.e00563
Published online - 10/06/2026.
"Integration of 3D data and multispectral imaging for polychrome clay figurines from classical and Hellenistic period"
Dimitrios Karamouzas, Dimitrios Makris, Stamatis Boyatzis and Hariclia Brecoulaki
Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, 2026, 42, e00555.
Read more here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.daach.2026.e00555
Published online - 08/06/2026.
"Multi-Technique Analysis and Digital Reconstruction of Polychromy on a Mithraic Altar from Carrawburgh Roman Fort near Hadrian’s Wall"
Louisa Campbell, Margaret Smith and Sarah Dugmore
Colorants, 2026, 5, 6.
Read more here: https://doi.org/10.3390/colorants5010006
Published online - 13/02/2026.
Recent books
"Colour Concept “Secoli bui” a colori: Codici cromatici e architetture dipinte nell’età tardoantica e medievale"
Edited by Elisabetta Neri, Paolo Liverani, Fulvio Cervini
Published by Archaeopress
This volume examines the role of colour in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, exploring its use in art and architecture through archaeological, art historical and scientific research. It highlights how colour was produced, perceived and experienced, and its importance in shaping later visual and cultural traditions.
Although colour was considered to be essentially for the perception of objects in ancient thought, its importance in archaeological and art-historical studies was underestimated until the 20th century
Recent scientific innovations in cultural heritage diagnostics have enabled a qualitative and quantitative increase in colour studies for the Classical and late medieval periods. Less well explored remains the transitional period of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, crucial for the development of the cultural history of colour in subsequent eras.
Divided into two parts, firstly the book aims to explore the chromatic profile of various media in Late Antique visual culture, attempting to grasp the possible development of a distinct chromatic culture. The second part addresses issues related to colour in architecture, considering the evolution of chromatic space and its perception through a series of excavation, restoration, and research projects that reveal and interpret it.
Link to publishers page.
Download to PDF eBook available here.
Published - 01/09/2026
"Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Colour Blue in Ancient Egypt and Sudan"
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Edited by Cecilie Brøns and Elsa Yvanez
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Published by Brepols
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This volume is a collaborative anthology exploring the significance of blue in ancient Egypt and Sudan. It brings together experts from diverse fields — art history, archaeology, linguistics, textile and leather studies, conservation, and heritage science — to examine the Nile Valley’s material world through a ‘blue lens’. The book investigates the cultural, technological, and symbolic dimensions of blue, tracing how people discovered, imitated, dyed, painted, carved, and experienced the colour. Through integrative research that crosses the boundaries of the humanities and natural sciences, the volume offers a ground-breaking perspective on colour studies, revealing how the pursuit of blue drove artistic and technological advancements across time.
Link to publishers page.
Published - 01/07/2026.
"COLOURS REVEALED – Polychrome Monuments in the Roman Provinces – Detection, Interpretation, Visualisation"
Edited by Gabriele Kremer, Robert Linke, Georg A. Plattner and Eduard Pallhammer
Published by Holzhausen
The originally vibrant appearance of ancient sculptures and architecture has been the focus of interdisciplinary research again for about half a century. New technologies make it possible to examine paint layers even when hardly any traces of the original paintwork are visible to the naked eye.
While good data exist for the ancient Mediterranean, corresponding information on the stone monuments of the Roman provinces is still largely lacking. Within the framework of an interdisciplinary research project (»PolychroMon«), systematic investigations into the polychromy of Roman stone monuments in the Danube region were carried out for the first time. In this volume, these findings are compared with similar results from other regions of the Roman Empire. A total of 14 contributions present examples of polychrome paintwork on monuments from Egypt, Germany, England, France, Italy, Austria, Serbia, and Turkey, and discuss related questions in detail.
Link to publishers page.
Published - 30/04/2026.
"La sculpture aux mains des peintres. Terres cuites polychromes de la Grèce antique"
Edited by Brigitte Bourgeois and Violaine Jeammet
Published by EFA, Louvre, 2026 (2 vols.)
Celebrated in ancient literature and subsequently romanticized in modern times owing to its near-total disappearance, the art of painting in ancient Greece may nevertheless be approached through a long-neglected category of objects: small-scale clay sculpture. For those equipped to interpret it, this miniature material constitutes a significant resource for the recovery of a fundamental dimension of Greek art—colour. Bringing together archaeology, art history, and archaeometry, this study offers the first comprehensive synthesis of the polychromy of terracotta figurines. It underscores the sophistication and range of the techniques employed by painters operating within a shared pictorial culture that encompassed monumental painting, marble sculpture, and small-scale artefacts.
The volume further demonstrates— both to specialists and to a broader readership —the degree of care, and at times conspicuous luxury, invested in the painted embellishment of many of these offerings. As such, they stand as rare testimonies to an otherwise little-known everyday life in which women, the invisible segment of Greek society, occupied a central role.
More details (including table of contents) here. En français ici.
Link to publishers page.
Published - 28/04/2026.
"Mummy Portraits of Roman Egypt, Volume 2: Emerging Research from the APPEAR Project"
Edited by Marie Svoboda and Caroline Cartwright
Published by J. Paul Getty Trust
The international collaboration known as APPEAR (Ancient Panel Paintings: Examination, Analysis, and Research) was launched in 2013 to promote the study of these objects and gather research findings into a shared database. This second volume of Mummy Portraits of Roman Egypt contains seventeen scholarly papers from the APPEAR conference hosted in 2022 at the Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam. Conservators, scientists, and scholars presented new research on topics such as technical imaging; non-destructive analytical techniques; provenance and collecting; treatment histories; connoisseurship and forgeries; comparisons of works across institutions; and scientific studies of woods, pigments, coatings, and binders. With the most up-to-date information available about the production, materiality, function, and history of these painted funerary artifacts, this volume will be a valuable resource to all who research ancient art.
Available open-access here.
Published - 28/02/2026
