813 



POLYCHROITE. 



POLYCHROMY. 



Scape, a well-filled truss, a corolla with a short tube, a bright yellow 

 eye, and a deep rich brown crimson limb, bordered with a well-definec 

 yellow edging. They require less careful cultivation than the auricula 

 with which they are nearly allied [AURICULA], and principally need 

 shade and a strong rich soil kept somewhat moist. Their beauty how- 

 ever diminishes with their age, so that a renewal of the variety from 



is requisite every few years. 

 1'OLYCHROITE. [SAKIIAMN.] 



POLYCHROMATIC ACID. Synonymous with ALGETIC ACID. 

 POLYCHROME. [EscuLis.] 



POLYCHROMY, a modern term (from the Greek oAi5 and 

 used to express the ancient practice of colouring statues and the 

 exteriors of buildings. 



Among the earliest civilised nations it was a universal custom to 

 decorate not only their temples and palaces with colours, but the 

 statues with which they were adorned. The Egyptians appear to have 

 covered almost every part of their buildings, and the sculpture on the 

 walls, with brilliant colours and gilding. [EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE.] 

 Upon the relics of Assyrian architecture, and the carved slabs, which 

 have been discovered in such large numbers at Kouyunjik,at Nimrond, 

 and especially those of Khorsabad, traces of colour and gilding were 

 in many instances distinctly visible when first found ; and we have 

 evidence in the Scriptures (Ezek. xxiii. 14; Jeremiah xxii. 14; 

 /'1'lKiniah ii. 14, &c.), that the walls and ceilings were adonied with 

 figures portrayed in vermilion and other bright colours. [NINEVEH, 

 ARCHITECTURE OF.] So again, the Babylonians, the successors of the 

 it Assyrians, whilst imitating the sculpture and architecture of 

 their predecessors, were equally profuse in the application of poly- 

 chromatic decoration. [PERSIA* ARCHITECTURE.] 



It is, however, the polychromy of the ancient Greeks that has 

 most engaged the attention of artists and archaeologists. The sources 

 of information respecting it are the remains of Greek art, and the 

 writings of classic authors. There is scarcely any distinct notice of 

 the system or practice of colouring Architecture in any of the ancient 

 writers. A few remarks occur in Vitruvius and Pausanias, which may 

 be construed into an allusion to it, but they are vague, and the systems 

 which have been laid down by several modern writers rest chiefly 

 upon conjecture. It is more than probable, where the architectural 

 members were subject to o great a variety of forms and proportions, 

 tlint the decorations in colour, which admit of endless variety, were 

 quite arbitrary. Remains of colour have been found by travellers 

 upon ornamental work in most of the architectural mins of Greece. 

 Many traces were discovered by Dodwell, Stuart, Chandler, Brondsted, 

 Semper, and others, upon the principal Athenian monuments : upon 

 the temple of Theseus, the Parthenon, the Propylasa, the Erechtheium, 

 the temple on the Ilissus, the monument of Lysicratcs, the outer 

 propyhca of the temple of Ceres at Kleusis, and the greater temple at 

 lUiamnus ; also upon the temple of Apollo at Bassec in Arcadia, the 

 Doric ruins at Corinth, the temple of Athene in JK%in&, and by 

 11 upon the remains of the great mausoleum at Halicarnaseus ; 

 11)1011 tlio temples of Selinus in Sicily, and upon the basilica at 

 Picntum. 



As to the extent to which the colouring of the exterior of build- 

 ings was carried by the Greeks there is considerable difference of 

 "pinion. Some excellent authorities, both English and continental, 

 hold that their buildings were entirely covered with colour ; while 

 the majority believe that the balance of evidence indicates that in 

 marble buildings the colouring was confined to the capitals of columns, 

 the mouldings and other ornaments, the friezes, the metopes, and the 

 tympana of the pediments. The exterior of the wall of the cella of 

 the temple of .Kgina, and the columns of the Doric temple at Corinth 

 (which, however, were not of marble), they admit were covered with a 

 stucco and coloured red. There is, however, direct evidence that tin; 

 Greeks carried their colouring much farther, even in marble buildings. 

 Several travellers have found colour on portions of the Theseum 

 v.lii.-h are not merely ornamental. In like manner it appears from 

 the analysis by Mr. Faraday of stucco brought by Mr. Donaldson from 

 Athens, that "the surface of the shaft* of the columns of the 

 Theseura and other parts of the edifice* from which these coatings 

 iken were covered with a coloured coating." (Report of Com- 

 "f the Royal Institute of British Architect*, appointed in 1836 

 to investigate the evidence bearing on the employment by the Greeks 

 < L i '..l<mr in Air-liiteeture and Sculpture, published in the ' Trans- 

 ,*' ol the Institute, vol. i., 1812.) Wax seems to have been 

 it, in most, if not all, of the specimens analysed by Mr. Faraday. 

 Mr. liracebridge, as is stated in the same Report, found in the northern 

 portico of the Erechtheium. which is sheltered from the sea-breeze, 

 clear remains of " colour of various shades" in the upper part of the 

 fluted columns as well us in the capitals. Also in excavating, in 

 1835-36, at the south-east angle of the Parthenon, according to the 

 same authority, the workmen came, at a depth of 25 feet, upon a place 

 where, as he conjectures, the workmen of the Parthenon threw their 

 refuse materials, and there "were found many pieces of marble, and 

 aning thpe fragments of triglyphn, of fluted columns, and of statues, 

 particularly a female head. These three last-mentioned fragments 

 were painted with the brightest red, blue, and yellow, or rather ver- 

 milion, ultra-marine, and straw-colour, which last nmy have faded in 

 the earth." Mr. Pcnrose found traces of vlour of a peculiar yellow 



tinge upon some parts of the columns of the Parthenon, especially on 

 those of the west front, but he thinks it was originally most likely 

 only a delicate tint to reduce the high light of the marble. Professor 

 Semper and others have also found traces of colour on the constructive 

 as well as the decorative features of Grecian monuments. The latest 

 testimony is that of Mr. Newton, who found in excavating the ruins of 

 the mausoleum of Halicarnassus " an immense number of pieces of 

 painted stucco from the sides of walls," with, among other things, 

 painted borders of the well-known Greek aute-fixal flowers, in several 

 colours ; the colours, from the nature of the soil, being preserved in 

 unusual freshness. (' Parliamentary Papers respecting excavations at 

 Budrum,' 1858, p. 4, and Mr. Newton's Letter in Falkener's ' Dtedalus," 

 1860.) 



In later times amongst the Romans, in the times of Vitruvius and 

 Puny, the practice seems to have degenerated into a mere taste for 

 gaudy colours, and to have been very general, as we see in the ruins 

 of Pompeii, where, however, occasionally the arabesque decorations 

 upon the walls of the courts in the larger houses are very elegant. 



With regard to the system of decorating the mouldings, it appears, 

 from the traces found xipon 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 tho ordinary deco- 

 rations ; but on the Doric ticnia 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 gutttc were apparently generally gilded. The facia; of the 

 architraves, and the corona) of the coniices, 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 tho pediments would also requiie 

 colour. In the Doric order, the tympanum would necessarily be of 

 the f-aine 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 gave 

 the whole building an elegant lightness of effect which it otherwise 

 coxild not have. Sometimes the sxirfaces of walls, &c., seem to have 

 been ornamented with a diaper or pattern delicately painted. 



Polychrome sculpture was quite as general amongst the Greeks as 

 polychrome architecture ; it is frequently alluded to by almost all the. 

 ancient writers, and many statues of this kind are minutely described 

 by Pausaiiias. The polylithic and the chryselephantine statues both 

 come under this head. [ScuLiTUHE.] The painters of statues appeal- 

 to have constituted a distinct class of artists : ul aySpuivras ypdtpovrts, 

 Plato calls them ; and Plutarch speaks of the ' AyaXiuirui' iyxnvural, 

 " cncaxiBtic-painters of statues," and the art itself as aya\fntirtai/ 



That the statues were sometimes entirely painted even in the best 

 period of Greek art there can be no doubt, both from the references to the 

 practice hi ancient authors and from traces of colour on many existing 

 examples, as in the sculpture of the Theseum, and on such fragments 

 as those 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 xmiversal 

 perhaps not even the common practice to jMiint the marble entirely, 

 s evident from the conversation between Lycimis and Aristratus, in 

 ;he dialogue of the ' Portraits,' or ' Panthea,' in Luciau (' Do Imag.,' 

 >-8), from which it is plain that the Venus of Cnidos, by Praxiteles, 

 ind other celebrated statues, were not painted, though parts may have 

 jecn painted, and the whole body covered with an encaustic tint or 

 varnish. 



This last process, whatever it was, must however have required great 

 artistic skill and taste. Plato ('De Republ.,' iv. 420) observes, in 

 speaking 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, 

 ;hat the whole is made beautiful." And Pliny relates that, Praxitiles 

 jeing asked which of his marble statues he preferred, answered, 

 ' ' Thoso which Nicias has had a hand in ; ' so much did he attri- 

 jute to his rircumlitio.'' There has been much difference of opinion as 

 to what this circumlitio was. To understand it, we must remember 

 iat Nicias was subsequently for it is pretty clear that it must have 

 3een when he was a young man that he painted tho statues of 

 Praxiteles [NiriAs, in I'.io... iMv.j one of the most famous encaustic- 

 painters of Greece; that Plutarch expre,. ly calls the statue-painters 

 mcaustic-painters; and that wax is shown by modern chemical one 

 < have Leon a constituent of the pigment employed in colouring the 



