With regard to the system of decorating the mouldiugs, it appears, from the traces found upon ancient monuments, that they were painted in various ways and in a great variety of colours, whether carved or plain ; and_ a tasteful combination of colours must have greatly heightened the effect of even the richest mouldings. These deco rations were not confined to the mouldings of the entablature ; the ovolo, echinus, and abacus of the capital, and the toruses of the base, were also coloured. Foliage, ova, and beads were the ordinary deco rations ; but on the Doric tacnia a fret was generally painted, and the cymatia of the pediment-cornices were frequently ornamented with gilded metal-work : the acroteria were also surmounted with gilded figures. Upon the larger mouldings, on which foliage was painted, the outlines of the leaves were engraved in the stone. The mutules, dentils, modillions, and the soffits were also variously coloured; but the Doric guttre were apparently generally gilded. The facite of the architraves, and the corona) of the cornices, were, at least sometimes, left plain. The Doric architrave was sometimes ornamented with gilded shields, as in the Parthenon at Athens, which were placed immediately beneath the metopes.. It appears that all friezes which were decorated with sculpture were coloured, which, if the sculpture itself were uncoloured, would be necessary to give the sculpture a proper relief ; for the same reason, the tympana of the pediments would also require colour. In the Doric order, the tympanum would necessarily be of the name colour as the metopes : in the Parthenon they were of a pale blue ; and in some of the Sicilian monuments red has been found. The metopes require colour, with or without sculpture, to throw the weight of the pediment upon the triglyphs, its natural supporters, which being left plain united the cornice with the architrave, and gavo the whole building an elegant lightness of effect which it otherwise could not have. Sometimes the surfaces of walls, &e., seem to havo been ornamented with a diaper or pattern delicately painted.
Polychrome sculpture was quite as general amongst the Creeks as polychrome architecture ; it is frequently alluded to by almost all the ancient writers, and many statues of this kind are minutely described by Pauaanias. The polylithio and the ehryselephantine statues both come under this head. [Seutrruna.] The painters of statues appear to have constituted a distinct class of artists : el avSpitivras wcisbovrer, I'lato calls them ; and Plutarch speaks of the ?rcauctral, " encaustic-painters of statues," and the art itself as ityctiacirew Pecavair.
That the statues were sometimes entirely painted even in the best period of Greek art there can be no doubt, both from the refereneeato the practice in ancient anthors and from traces of colour on many existing examples, as in the sculpture of the Theacum, and on such fragments as theme found among the waste materials of the Parthenon, mentioned above, and the red colour found by Mr. Newton on the nude parts of some of the statues, and the tawny colour on the hind-quarters of the Lion, found by him at Halicarnassus. That it was not the universal— perhaps not even the common—practice to paint the marble entirely, is evident from the conversation between Lycinus and Aristratus, in the dialogue of the `Portraits; or Pauthea,' in Lucian (' De Imag.; 5-8), from which it is plain that the Venus of Cnidos, by Praxitelea, and other celebrated statues, were not painted, though parts may have been painted, and the whole body covered with an encaustic tint o• varnish. • This last process, whatever it was, must however have required great artistic skill and taste. Plate (` De Itepubl.,' iv. 420) observes, in !peaking of statue-painters, " It is not by applying a rich or beautiful colour to any particular part, but by giving every part its local colour, that the whole is made beautiful." And Pliny relates that, Praxitilea
being asked which of his marble statues he preferred, answered, ' Those which Nicias has had a hand in ; ' so much did he attri bute to his circumlitio." There has been much difference of opinion as to what this circumlitio was. To understaud it, we must remember that Nicias was subsequently—for it is pretty clear that it must have been when he was a young man that he painted the statues of Praxiteles [Nimes, in Moo. Div.]—ouo of tho most famous encaustic painters of Greece ; that Plutarch expressly calls the statoc-painters encaustic-painters; and that wax is shown by modern chemical analysis to have Leen a conatituent of the pigment employed in colouring the ancient marbles; and we shall then, looking at the word itself, probably corwhola that it was the application of some encaustic material, which requires' to be rubbed in with great dexterity and with still greater refinement In the circiunlitio of Nicias, and of the dwiaudrar :at asecrral (the encaustic-painters of statues) generally, the naked form probably received only this delicate tint or varnish, the more positive colouring being applied only to the eyes, eye-brows, and lips, to the hair, the draperies, and the various ornaments a dress; and there can be little doubt that marble statues, especially of females, must have had a very beautiful appearance when carefully coloured in this way.
But whatever reserve there may have been in colouring the finer specimens of Grecian sculpture,--and it is almost certain, from the care shown in the selection of the marble, that the colour was not laid on so thickly as to conceal the material,—it is quite certain, from l'ausanias and other contemporary authorities, that the archaic statues which were simply objects of worship were entirely coloured, the flesh as well as the drapery, with the strongest—though, as would seem, with con ventional rather than the natural—colours, and frequently indeed clothed as well as coloured. Statues of a higher class as works of art often had the hair gilded, and the cars pierced for pendants, as in the case of the Venus de' Medici; and in many statues glass eyes were inserted, with eyelashes of copper, examples of which are still extant.
So direct and various has been the evidence brought to bear on the question of Greek polychromy, that the fact must be regarded as proved ; the extent to which it was carried is however less certain ; while the desirableness of reviving the practice may be considered more than doubtful. That attempts, more or leas partial, have been mule to revive the practice by artists of various countries, it is scarcely necessary to mention. Oue of the must successful attempts is probably that of Mr. Gibson [Mesas, Joni, in Bioo. Div.]; but the admiration which his Venus has obtained, does not appear to have led many other English sculptors to follow his example.
The architects and sculptors of the middle ages painted their build ings and monuments throughout, and with the strongest and brightest colours; but their system was rude and inartistic, being indeed rather ecclesiastical than }esthetic in purpose. In some recent Gothic buildings, and restorations of ancient ones, both in this country and on the Continent, elaborate and costly, if not altogether satisfactory, efforts have been made to revive mediicval polychromy.
(Kugler, refer die Polyehromie der uriechischen Architectur end Sculptur end ihre Grenzen ; Semper, l'orlaiifigc Bemerkungen fiber &matte Archilectur and Plastik Lei den Allen ; Quatremere de Quincy, Le Jupiter Olympic,; Zahn, Pompeii; Hittorff, Architecture Poly ehr6me chez led Grecs ; Stuart, A ntiquit;es of Athens; I'enrose, Principles of Athenian Architecture ; Falkener, Redalus.)