Naturalistically coloured dolls, mannequins, automata, and wax portrait figures are not included in the generally accepted version of Western art history, and polychrome religious statuary is on the lowest rung of the art hierarchy.

By and large, modernist works continue on with the ‘Greek prejudice,’ – the neo-classical misconception that classical Greek sculpture was uncoloured. Modernist essentialism understands this colourlessness as one of the ‘truth[es] to materials’ it defended – the truth of archetypal, not specific, representation. Thus, a bronze or stone sculpture is left unadorned to reveal its ‘true’ colouration.