Romans to paint Trajan's Column - with light!

A couple of years ago I attended an excellent exhibit at the Getty Villa about the use of vibrant color in ancient art.  At that exhibit, copies of some ancient sculpture had been brightly painted to demonstrate how Greek and Roman temples and the frieze of the Parthenon actually looked to ancient Greeks and Romans.

Now, Italian researchers, using analysis of ancient pigment fragments recovered from the monument carved with scenes depicting the Emperor Trajan's battles with the Dacians, are planning to repaint Trajan's Column but use projected light instead of physical paint so the original is not damaged or irrevocably changed.  High-definition film containing appropriately colored images of the column's reliefs will be projected onto the monument for a few minutes each hour during the evening hours beginning next year to give visitors a view of the intricately detailed 100-foot column that has not been seen in almost 2,000 years.

Discovery News has  an interesting video about the project:

http://news.discovery.com/videos/archaeo-roman-column-painted-in-light.html

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