Death of a “Kyklatidissa”: a story of loss and grief told through marble and color

In antiquity, child mortality was very high, and Psyche was only around six or seven years old when she died in the island of Melos, in the first century CE. From an inscription, we know that she was likely an illegitimate child. Nonetheless, to honor and remember her, Psyche’s family commissioned an elaborate marble portrait with her likeness, now at the Hellenic National Archaeological Museum in Athens. The portrait retains remarkably well-preserved traces of original color in the right eye, lips, nostrils, hair and dress.

Investigations on the nature of the paint traces allow to draw comparisons with other works of art that serve as a source of inspiration for a tentative reconstruction of the original appearance of Psyche’s portrait. The reconstruction, when placed within its broader funerary and cultural context, powerfully moves us not only to reflect on the original appearance of ancient sculpture and the long-celebrated tradition of ancient painting, but also to engage with the emotions, feelings, aspirations and fears of the ancient inhabitants of Melos, as they grappled with the fraught relation between the living and the dead.

The exceptional condition of the portrait of Psyche provides us with an unprecedented opportunity to explore the role of color when facing a universal condition: the loss of a loved one and the need to express grief through the arts.

Since 2019, Giovanni Verri has been a conservation scientist in the Department of Conservation and Science at the Art Institute of Chicago. He holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Ferrara, Italy, and an MA in Conservation of Wall Paintings from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. Prior to joining the Art Institute of Chicago, he was a Reader at the Courtauld Institute of Art and a Lecturer at University College London.

His research interests include the development and application of investigative techniques for the analysis of color in ancient Greece and Rome, and the relation between the use of color and its broader cultural meaning. In 2007, he developed an imaging technique that maps the presence of Egyptian blue—virtually the only blue pigment used in antiquity—often revealing patterns and decorative elements otherwise invisible to the naked eye. This has led to important discoveries about the use of color in antiquity and beyond and is now used by several institutions around the world.

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