POLYCHROMY IN GREEK STATUARY. 617 



effect of gold. Hair and eyebrows red; the iris dark brown, suggests 

 the idea that the painter, unable to bring out all the shades of the 

 various kinds of gold and precious stones, has employed a conventional 

 coloring. Many will say this is a copy of a chryselephantine work; in 

 other words, this is an exceptional case. Let us, therefore, examine 

 other works, copies, which reveal to us most readily the originals in 

 marble. In the British Museum there is a precious head of marble, 

 carefully protected by a glass case against atmospheric influences. It 

 was found in Eome in 1884, and no doubt belongs to a statue which 

 once adorned the gardens of the Esquiline, and the general style, the 

 shape of the coiffure, betray a replica of a Greek original, dating from 

 the fourth century. 1 If we consider the light yellow shade of the hair, 

 the rosy flesh tint that still covers the brow, the cheeks, and the neck, 

 the black pupils of the eyes, we can not hesitate to feel that the copyist 

 has respected the polychromy of his model. Has he transferred it with 

 all desirable delicacy? That is another question, but his testimony is 

 too valuable for us to blame the painter for having shown himself a 

 rather poor imitator of Nicias. With the London marble we must again 

 compare a head of a goddess, bought in 1888 by the Dresden Museum, 

 whose blonde hair is confined by a pink- colored headband, while the 

 face still shows evident traces of having been treated with wax.- Add 

 to this a curious statuette of Aphrodite, discovered in Pompeii in 1873, 

 very coquettish under her orange-colored cloak with its grayish-blue lin- 

 ing and white border, and accompanied by a little arckaicdooking figure 

 in a yellow peplos and green chiton, 3 and you will have a proof that 

 the polychromy of marble is still very much to the taste of Eomans in 

 the first century of our era. No one will be astonished to find in Pom- 

 peiian frescoes reproductions of painted statues with a well-sustained 

 peculiar tint for the fleshy parts. Is this nothing more than a conces- 

 sion made to the curiosity of amateurs? Does polychromy remain a 

 kind of reward for amateurs, and is it excluded from official statuary, 

 which multiplies the statues of emperors and great personages? Here, 

 again, we might have ground for believing the contrary. We shall 

 quote but one very striking example. The statue of Augustus, which 

 was found in Livy's villa, on the Flaminian road, and is now in the 

 Vatican, is well known. 4 The Emperor, in military costume, seems to 

 be addressing his troops. It is an admirable work, belonging to the 

 first years of our era. Now, the fragments of color which are still very 



1 It has been reproduced with all its colors iu PI. I of the Jahrbuch des arch. Insti- 

 tuts, 1889, Vol. IV. The plate is accompanied by a very learned article by Mr. G. 

 Treu, page 18. 



2 It is pointed out by Mr. G. Treu, Arch. Anzeiger, page 83, Jahrbuch des arch. 

 Instituts, 1889. 



"Dilthey, Arch. Zeitung, 1881, page 131, PI. VII. 



4 Helbig, Musde d'archeologie classique de Rome. Transl. by Toutain, I, page 5, 

 No. 25. 



5 Annali, 1863, pages 450-452, Monumenti inediti, VI, VII, PI. LXXXIV, 2. 



