- 
408 PELOPONNESUS. 
CHAP, being wetted with water, they appeared as 
vivid as when they were first laid on; resem- 
bling the painted surfaces of those "pictured 
urns' (as they were termed by our English Pindar) 
upon which it is now usual to bestow the appel- 
lation of " Grecian vases." The wonderful state 
of preservation manifested by the oldest painted 
terra cottas of Greece has been supposed to be 
owing to the circumstance of their remaining in 
sepulchres where the atmospheric air was 
excluded : but these ornaments were designed 
for the outside of a temple, or tomb, and have 
remained for ages exposed to all the changes of 
weather, upon the surface of the soil. In the 
description before given of the Memphian Sphinx, 
another striking example was adduced, proving 
through what a surprising lapse of time antient 
painting has resisted decomposition : and if the 
period of man's existence upon earth would 
admit of the antiquity ascribed by Plato to cer- 
tain pictures in Egypt, there would have been 
nothing incredible m the age he assigned to 
them A . The colours upon these terra cottas were 
a bright straw-yellow and red. The building to 
which they belonged is mentioned by Pausanias : 
(1) Stc p. 205, Chap. IV. of the former f'olume. " The walls of 
great edifices," says Paw, (ibid. p. 08,) " when once painted, re- 
mained so for ever." 
