Polychrome Sculpture: Meaning, Form, Conservation

Abstract

This important new translation, edited and introduced by Michele D. Marincola, translated by Carola Schulman and published by the Getty Conservation Institute, enables the English-speaking world to access a core text on polychrome sculpture for the first time from a body of literature which to this day remains largely in German. Johannes Taubert (1922–1975) was a leading conservator and art historian and head of the Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (Bavarian State Department for the Preservation of Monuments). The German edition of this book, Farbige Skulpturen: Bedeutung, Fassung, Restaurierung, was originally published in 1978, three years after his death, with a revised version coming out in 1983. As recognised in reviews at the time, including that by art historian Michael Baxandall, Farbige Skulpturen was important for its interdisciplinary study of northern European medieval to Baroque sculpture, integrating technical information and art historical argument in a way that was both new for its time and prescient for the future.