APPLICATION OF COLOR TO ARCHITECTURE.
Polychromy is the term applied in the history of art to the ornamenta tion of sculptured and architectural works by means of varied colors. In buildings these colors were made to cover both flat spaces and archi tectural details, while in statues or individual portions of the human fig ure and of drapery, and in other products of plastic art, separate features of a sculptured. ornament were colored in a manner characteristic of the subject.
regards Architecture more particularly, we find Egyp tian monuments of oldest date covered both on wide wall-spaces and on separate details, such as columns, capitals, bases, cornices, etc., with extensive series of highly-colored designs in low relief consisting in the main of figures and hieroglyphs, and often with purely decorative orna mentation.
Assyrian and Babylonian palaces and temples were similarly orna mented, the effect, however, being produced by the use of colored bricks whose surface was protected by glazing. The interiors of these buildings were likewise ornamented, together with the further addition of wall paintings and the coloring of ornamental details.
Pilaw clan Architecture employed for the same purpose metallic cover ings, sometimes of the precious metals—a practice evidently derived from Mesopotamia. From this source also may be traced a similar use of bright metals as applied by the Greeks of the Heroic Age, who learned the art from Oriental examples.
Greek architecture a complete system of coloring had been developed at an early period, particularly as applied to Doric tem ples, upon numerous remains of which traces of this coloring are still dis tinguishable. These traces are most clearly manifest upon friezes where the trig-Wks are generally colored blue, the guller, above and below, gilded, the metopes red, the cornice, which was often ornamented with foliated tracery, being variously colored, usually blue, red, gold, and green. The decorations of the pediments also show clear remains of color, the background being usually either blue or red; and the same is true of the capitals of columns. We are left more in uncertainty
regarding the exterior halls of the cella, whose interiors, according to the distinct statements of ancient authorities, were extensively orna mented with large historical wall-paintings. The same uncertainty exists regarding the architrave, upon which gilded shields or other metallic ornaments were often applied, and also regarding the shafts of columns. In general, it is sufficiently established that polychrome ornamentation was widely prevalent in early Greek architecture, and that coloring was practised upon all portions of temple-structures, including not only such as were built of tufa or brick, but also buildings of marble. (See Fronfispicce.) Roman architecture the extensive application of sculp tured ornament even upon the smallest details, such as we find on the capitals of Corinthian columns in Greek temples, had displaced colored decoration—at least, upon exteriors; but wherever stucco was used as a covering of walls, ceilings, columns, and pillars—thus, especially, on the exteriors of palaces, and private residences—polychrome orna ment again finds application. Closely connected with this phase of the subject is the employment of large brilliantly-colored mosaics for floors, a practice which in the declining period of Grecian art obtained exten sively in Alexandria and Pergammn, and which was later introduced at Rome. This practice, however, was not confined to these centres of cul ture, but extended throughout the ancient world, as is evidenced by numerous remains. It found various applications, and in time came to be utilized for the ornamentation of walls, columns, and other interior fea tures. This was succeeded by the introduction of Mural Decoration, in the modern sense of the term, by paintings and colored windows, the sub jects of which, often very mechanically executed, consisted mainly of symbolical and other fanciful compositions.