POLYOHEOMY IN G-EEEK STATUABY 



By Maxime Oollignon. 



In the days when Hittorff had j)roven conclusively in his writings 

 that Greek architects constantly employed polychroniy, an archaeolo- 

 gist, a determined adversary of the new theory, traveled all over Greece, 

 resolved to see nothing that could be opposed to his views. One of 

 his followers had climbed to the cornice of a temple, and while explor- 

 ing it, the following dialogue was heard: "Do you tind any traces of 

 color?" "Yes!" "Gome down instantly!" Unless we employ the same 

 method, it is very difficult nowadays to doubt that the Greeks painted 

 their statues. The question is a matter of fact, and arguments drawn 

 merely from aesthetics, or from sentiment, can not prevail against abun- 

 dant testimony. 



Not only do excavations in Greece, in Olympia, Athens and Delphi 

 furnish us many an imposing series of sculptures, uninjured by indis- 

 creet restoration and still preserving, as they came forth from the soil, 

 traces, and sometimes actually startling traces, of painted decorations, 

 but the catalogues of the great museums of Europe report periodically 

 among their new acquisitions Greek marbles on which the practiced eye 

 very quickly discovers unmistakable vestiges of painting. And who 

 could possibly measure the harm that has been done in this respect by 

 the fatal mania of so-called restoration and of thorough cleansing, from 

 which we are now happily delivered? The principle of polychroniy 

 itself is no longer contested. The account of former controversies 

 would now hardly offer more than one single kind of interest. This 

 would be to see how a prejudice gradually declined that had been born 

 in the days of the Renaissance, defended in the name of modern aesthet- 

 ics, and yielding, step by step, and with frequent rebellions, to the 

 reality of facts. But though on this point all discussion is at an end, 

 yet the question remains open. In fact, it is evident that polychroniy 

 has been applied in various ways, and that during the five or six cen- 

 turies in which Greek art has enjoyed an independent life, the progress 

 made in technical matters, as well as in style, has modified the rules 

 which controlled the painting of statues. The problem which in our 

 day preoccupies the historians of antique art is mainly historical. 

 What is the nature of the evolution through which polychromy has 

 passed from the beginning of Greek art to the masterpieces produced 



1 Translated from Eevue des Deux Mondes, vol. 127, February 15, 1895. 



601 



