Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/105

 THE PARTHENON AND ITS SCULPTURES. 89 marble, before it was cleaned, preserved traces not only of the encaustic colour (i.e., the waxing), with which according to the custom the Greeks covered their sculptures, but also of the real painting of some parts. . . . The ground was blue, the hair, and some parts of the body, were gilt." * This agrees very closely with Dodwell's description of the frieze of the Theseum, where, he says, "the colours are still perceptible on a close inspection. The armour and accessories have been gilt, the drapery is generally green, blue, or red ; which seem to have been the favourite colours of the Greeks. The open air i.e., the background] is painted blue." Penrose thought he saw " a slight trace " of colour on one metope. Beul6 says of one, that "the drapery of the woman was green, the ground being red." ■ Not only the reliefs, but the great sculptures were finished with colour and addi- tions of gilt bronze. Leake says, " We found proof in many traces that the statues and reliefs, as well as the members of the architecture, were enriched with various colours, rendering them pic- tures as well as groups of statuary." Cockerell pointed out the remains of a coating on parts of the " Ilissus," and Murray says, " It appears that originally the sculptures had been covered with a thin wash or size of lime." He referred to the remains of bright colour on the pediment sculptures of Olympia, and concluded that there was no doubt that the Parthenon groups had been similarly decorated. The Laborde head in Paris, which is accepted as having come from the Parthenon, still shows traces of red in the hair, as do many other antique heads. The thought of coloured statuary is apt Fig. 75. — Frieze : Athena and Hephaistos. of the Parthenon. This, perhaps, should read — some traces of what might be gold.
 * Cockerell, in the jCgina volume, says gold is observed in many parts