POLYCHROMY IN GREEK STATUARY. 615 



proof, it must be admitted that the custom of painting statues was evi- 

 dently not a passing fashion, and that it survived even the Eoman 

 conquest. But the written texts have their commentary in the monu- 

 ments. A complete examination would amount to a catalogue of all 

 the works on which traces of painting have been discovered, and this 

 simple statement of facts would be equivalent to a conviction. But we 

 can not think of undertaking such a minute investigation. We shall 

 be content to quote some examples in order to put down some laud- 

 marks on this long road with distant perspectives of which a rapid 

 survey of the manuscripts has given us a glimpse at least. 



Pliny's anecdote about the cooperation of Praxiteles and Mcias has 

 nothing that is suspicious about it; on the contrary, the discovery of 

 the only original statue by this great Athenian master which we pos- 

 sess, the Hermes of Olympia, invites us to believe that it is true. The 

 reddish brown, traces of which are found on his hair and on the san- 

 dals, bears witness that the painter's brush has put the final touch to 

 the sculptor's work. The marbles which date from the Hellenistic epoch 

 furnish more than one analogous example. An Apollo in the Museum 

 at Constantinople, found at Cymae, bears on his shoulders some red 

 drapery; he wears ornamental shoes, on which traces of red, blue, and 

 ocher are visible. We must especially mention a statuette of ./Escu- 

 lapius in Paros marble, found on the Island of Cos and bought, in 1892, 

 for the Dresden Museum. 1 It presents the curious peculiarity of hav- 

 ing not only been painted, but actually painted over again. The prim- 

 itive color of the cloak had been a rather light brick red. At a later 

 date, perhaps upon the occasion of a revision of all the offerings 

 exposed in the sanctuary of ^Esculapius, the primitive painting has 

 been revised, and a new coloring given to the cloak. This time a rose 

 tint was chosen. It has often been asserted that the Greek terra cot- 

 tas give us a fairly correct idea of the painting of statues, and that 

 especially the small Tanagra figures, with their delicate coloring, their 

 flesh clothed in a very pale tint, their draperies in which soft and very 

 much weakened colors combine, a delicate pink, blue, or violet, and 

 their hair, painted reddish brown, might j>resent to us, in miniature, 

 the image of a polychromatic statue. The process of making them 

 renders this analogy very striking indeed. Before proceeding to the 

 coloring of the little figure, the manufacturer plunges it into a bath of 

 whitewash and white lead. When it comes forth from this, immac- 

 ulate under its slight layer of white, which is to be the ground work 

 for the painting, it presents very nearly the appearance of a small 

 marble statue, ready to receive its final dressing at the hand of the 

 painter. And will not the artist who is to color it be under the influ- 

 ence of the usual custom in coloring large statues"? The recent exca- 

 vations carried on by the French School of Athens, at Delos, furnish 

 us with curious information on that question. Amid the ruins of a 



1 Arch. Auzeiger,, Jalirtmck des arch. Instituts, VII, 1892, page 159. 



