23rd
Michelangelo supervised the excavation of the Laocoon and he was the first to recognize it from descriptions by classical writers. All modern investigations have confirmed Michelangelo’s attribution. Michelangelo and other artists and historians of the Renaissance, however, made the error of believing that the sculture was originally white. It never occured to them that they were originally colored and that the paint had worn off. As Michelangelo was trying to emulate his classic peers, he made his sculpture of pure white marble and so modern taste for sculpture lacking color was born. Modern analysis of the Laocoon indicate that at the very least the serpent was colored green and the drapes were multicolored.
Some scholars think that while parts were colored, other parts of ancient sculpture was left white. As the remaining traces of coloring material is scant at best it is difficult to prove or refute this proposition. There is extensive evidence, however, that there is no one area of sculptures which are always devoid of paint traces, and the preponderance of the evidence is that most. if not all sculptures were extensively, if not totally painted in colors that modern tastes find garish.