274 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Past II. 



copies of nature, that Pliny (xxv. 12) says, "non sit aspectu 

 discernere a veris." 



There is sometimes a tendency to adhere to antiquated 

 notions long after facts have been proved ; and it has even 

 been disputed whether any portion of a Greek building was 

 coloured, in defiance of undeniable proofs such as are 

 afforded by the Parthenon, and other monuments in Greece, 

 Sicily, and elsewhere. But the fact is well established, and it 

 is very evident that the many porphyry, and other, columns 

 in Eoman buildings, were intended as more durable substi- 

 tutes for 'painted shafts. Besides, when we recollect that no 

 one in an Athenian sunshine could bear to look upon the 

 glare of white marble, we may readily believe how necessary 

 colour was for the eyes of the spectator, as well as for the 

 embellishment of the building. 



When marble was first used, it was a substitute for the 

 stuccoed wall, and the custom of painting this was continued 

 on the more durable material. And that a building was 

 looked upon as unfinished, until so ornamented, is shown by 

 the whiteness of the Prytaneum and Agora of Siphnos being 

 a peculiarity, when the Pythia gave out this oracle : — • 



" When the Prytaneum in Siphnos shall be white, 

 And the Agora white fronted, then there is need of a prudent man 

 To guard against a wooden troop, and a red herald." 



For having been, as Herodotus says, " then fitted up with 

 Parian marble," the Siphnians had not yet had time to colour 

 them, when the Samians came in their "red n galley to ravage 

 their lands. 



And if Pliny (xxxvi. 5) mentions a chapel of Ephesus, behind 

 the great Temple of Diana, which strangers were warned not to 

 look at too long for fear of the glare of the white marble 

 injuring their eyes ; this was an exception, as the necessity 

 of the warning itself implies. Pliny too shows that colour 



