384 



EGYPT. 



Sicyon. (lib. ii.) Pausanias alludes to the paintings of Polygnotus on 

 the walls of the temple of Minerva at Plataea (lib. ix.) and Plutarch 

 (in Aristid.) speaks of them as in a state of preservation in his 

 time. They had therefore lasted more than 550 years. Silanion 

 and Parrhasius are called twovw Oyjo-eug yfa,<peiq za) %Xa,(rroa, Pausanias 

 also informs us, (lib. vii. and lib. ix.) that he saw at iEgira and 

 Creusis three statues ; two of which were of Bacchus ; one was 

 painted with cinnabar; and the other was made of gypsum and 

 l7riKzx.o<r[A7iixevov ygafy. One of Minerva was gilt and coloured. 



That the encaustic process was used in some of the sacred 

 buildings of the Greeks, we learn from that singular inscription 

 quoted by Cuper (in Harpo.) and Le Moyne (de Melaneph.) con- 

 taining a dedication of a Pastophorium ; in this, mention is made of 

 the painting of the walls, the roof, and the doors, ruv 9v^v lyK.ctv<riv. 

 The persons who were employed in painting the walls were called 

 o-t<X/Swt«<; and the term applied to the cement or plaister is * kovixo-k. 

 From an inscription in the collection of Reinesius we learn, that the 

 same artist sometimes united in himself the professions of ayaX^ocTOTraog 

 and lyzctva-Tvjs. (lib. i. c. 9.) 



It may be asked whether traces of this custom are visible in any 

 of the monuments of ancient Greece. There are coloured ornaments 

 on the Soffit of the Lacunaria of the temple of Theseus. -]■ (Stuart, iii. 7.) 

 They were also seen, the same writer informs us, on the upper fascia 

 of the architrave within the portico of the Ionic temple on the banks 

 of the Ilissus (i. c. 2.) The stucco in the chamber near the site of 

 the supposed grotto of Trophonius in Bceotia, has been coloured. 

 Garlands were seen by Olivier painted on the cement of the cata- 

 combs of Milo, as at Alexandria. M. Fauvel informed Mr. Hawkins 

 that " he had remarked traces of painting in the frieze of the temple. 



* Salm. in H. A. S. 451. et Plin. Exerc. 1229. 



f See also Chandler's Greece, 72. The painted ornaments on the roof appear to be 

 signified by the xovpdic, of the Greeks, described by Hesychius, as, r\ h toTj 6pofri^a.<7t 



