본 연구는 고대 그리스 건축과 조각에 남겨진 색상에 관한 역사를 다루고, 고대 채색 전통에 관한 연구에서 도출된 최근의 고고학적, 미술사학적 결과를 조명하고 그 미술사적 의의를 다루고자 한다. 고대 조형물에서 채색은 사실적인 표현을 구현하고 입체감을 강화해 조형물의 가시성을 높여 관람자에게 편의를 도모하도록 기능했다. 지난 몇 세기 간 백색의 그리스와 로마의 조형물은 서유럽의 문화적 우월성의 상징이자, 고전미의 정수로 간주되어 왔었다. 하지만, 이제 고전 미술의 채색 연구는 이러한 패러다임에 도전하고 있다. 이 도전은 국내 연구자들에게 유럽적 미술사관의 한계를 넘어서 고전 미술을 이해하고 연구할 수 있는 새로운 관점을 제시할 수 있을 것으로 보인다.

Studies on western art in Korea has been caught in a dilemma that they could deal with only those things which had been arranged according to their ‘historical generalization’ in their contexts because of the bounds of time and space. It is not trivial that such conditions affect art studies in Korea. Access to the original texts and to their contexts of production is so restricted that the studies on them are prone to be superficial. And it is not independent on the politics of Korean art scene. Such factors are on the background of Korean art’s excessive ‘assimilation or accordance’ with western art. The domestic studies on western art history and art theory have failed to notice the differences in context and Korean art has simply mediated or reproduced the restricted information by those studies. Also the studies on western art in Korea have been made use of as a justifying method of one’s own academic domains. In such situations we should lead the studies on western art history and western art theory to a more reflective direction and confirm that the studies should not have any privileges of the realities. And we should try to reform a scholarship which participates in our life and existence. The field of domestic studies on western art history and western art theory should free itself from the invention of objectivity or the neutrality of mechanical reading and turn its eyes to the realities of life where events happens. Constantly suggesting which way Korean art and world art should go has to be the field’s new coordinates.