Architecture And Archæology.

beautiful colours on the most beautiful parts of the figureinasmuch as the eyes , the most beautiful parts , are not painted purple but black ; we should answer him by saying , clever fellow , do not suppose that we are to paint eyes so beautiful that they should not appear to be eyes . " This passage , we may well admit , alludes to the painting of statues . Tho word for statue being " audrias . " But it does

not say that the flesh was painted , nor that these were marble statues which were so treated . We ourselves , in our towns , possess painted statues of wood , as those of that distinguished North Briton , of which we still remark images in some of our old snuff shops . The Greeks also , as Pausanias informs us , had in their gardens and groves , figures of plaster and wood which were painted . By this people ,

however , without doubt many statues were painted of a much higher order than these , ancl even occasionally those of their gods . Another remarkable passage from the ancient authors ( brought to bear on this subject by polychromists ) is that from Pliny ( Book xxxv . cap . 2 ) , in which he says ( speaking of Niciasthe encausticpainter ) that Praxitelesthe Anthenian

, , sculptor , when asked which of bis marble works best satisfled him , replied , "Those which Nicias has had under his hands . " "So much" says Pliny "did he prize the finishing of Nicias "— " Tantum circumlitione ejus tribuebat . " Now , the whole force of this passage turns upon the meaning of the word " cireumlitio . " In the dictionary this word is translated "polishing" as indeed , its derivation points out .

But the polychrornists say that Praxiteles could not have meant polishing . Nicias , they say , was an encaustic painter , i . e ., one who painted in wax , laid on with heat , and that therefore cireumlitio must have meant painting the statues in encaustic ! This , you see , however , contains no evidence , and may be taken as an example of what is called "begging the question . " A little circuit , perhaps , may bring us round to a truer explanation of the passage . At times of festivifcy

the Greeks delighted to oil their bodies , as did the Romans also , a somewhat barbarian practice , as it seems to us now , but so they did . To give a similar shine and gloss to their statues , they occasionally waxed them , as the Romans did also . Nicias , as no doubt he used the best wax for his pictures , may probably have superintended this process for such of Praxiteles' statues as that sculptor prized the most ;

and there ends the whole story , for not a word is said about colour iu it . Moreover , the question put to Praxiteles was rather a searching oue . —" which of ? your statues do you like the best ? " Also a direct answer might have given offence in some quarters . Thus , however , did he parry it gracefully , by saying , '' Those which Nicias has haci under iris hands "

. The whole misapplication of this passage seems to arise , not from what Praxiteles himself said , but from what Pliny has volunteered—Tantum circumlitione ejus tribuebat . " "So much did he attribute" or ascribe " to the polishing of Nicias . " The truth is , that it was a pretty ad captandumspeech—just such a one as Pliny loved to record , and as such has been handed down with a force and meaning

attached to it , which examination shows it has no claim to . In the two quotations I have made exist the principal strongholds of the statue polychromists , as regards ancient authority of this kind in evidence of Greek practice . Having thus given precedence to these , I will now proceed to mention one or two on the other side of the question . Iu the discussion after the paper here , on the occasion I

have referred to , the Dean of St . Paul ' s brought forward a valuable , and to me , a new passage , bearing on the subject , namely , oue that occurs in line 406 of the Agamemnon of JEschylus , iu which Iphigenia , when about to be sacrificed , is compared to a statue "from the want of life or speculation in her eyes . " "This simile , " the Dean justly remarked , '' would not have been used if the eyes of statues had usually been coloured . "

Now , however , I would return to the practice of Praxiteles so much advanced by the statue-polychromists . In support of Mr . Westmacott's views on the occasion I have mentioned , in the course of the discussion I alluded briefly to the following illustration , which now , however , I will give iu detail , in the following story : ¦—In the iEgeau Sea , not far removed from each other , are two Islands , the Island of

Cos , and the Island of Cnidus . The inhabitants of the former Island—that of Cos—desired to have a statue of Venus in the finest marble , and they commissioned Praxiteles to execute it . Anxious to give satisfaction , the sculptor , iu response , made , not one statue , but two of this divinity , one nude , the other draped . Having done so , he gave his employers their choice . The inhabitants of Cos selected the

draped version . Perha ] is there was an art-committee on the occasion , for , as it appears , they did not choose the best . At least , the other one afterwards purchased by the inhabitants of the noigbouring islands of Cnidus , became eventually by far the more celebrated of the two . At that time , some three hundred or four hundred years before our Saviourpretty nearly every island in the iEgean had its

, celebrated statue of its tutelar divinity ; but this Cnidian Venus was by far the most celebrated of all . It was , however , but life-size , was in Parian marble , and was no doubt exquisitely conceived and worked . A small temple was built for it iu tho midst of a beautiful garden . The temple was open on all sides , so that it could be seen in all views . The Cnidians valued it beyond all their possessions . The

regard for it was not limited to them , however ; Nicomedes , King of Bithynia , a neighbouring state , having offered to remit a very large public debt which the Cnidians had contracted with him , if he might become the possessor of it , but the offer was declined . Moreover , it was not merely "the cynosure of neighbouring eyes , " but strangers came from all parts of the world to see it . "Many persons , " says

Pliny , whom I have been quoting passim , " sailed to Cnidus with no other object but to gaze on this statue . " "It was , " he adds " not only the finest statue of Praxiteles , but the finest statue in the world . "

Now , was this statue painted ? Not a bit of it . At least , not a word is mentioned of colour or tint in all Pliny ' s account of it , or in the still more detailed one by Lucian . It is to be supposed that if the ej'es , for instance , had been painted blue or brown , or the hair dark or fair , that nether of these two authorities should have made the slightest allusion to it ? Pliny says , that in every point of view this

statue was beautiful , and that visitors remarked that " whichever way they approached her , the goddess smiled benignantly upon them . " Also Lucian , iu his "De Amore " Division 13 , vol . v ., tells us that the mouth was a little open , and somewhat smiling . In another part he expatiates on the beauty of the hair ancl forehead and admires the precise , yet delicate eyebrows ; but not a word about the colour of

the hair and eyebrows . He then makes special mention of the swimming softness of the eyes , but not a word about their hue , which surely he would have mentioned had they been tinged , however slightly . The position of one hand of this statue was similar to that of the Venus do Meclicis , as we see by some coins of Cnidus containing representations of her , for , alas ! the statue itself no longer exists , having

been taken away to Rome , and thence eventually to Constantinople , where it is said to have perished by fire . The other hand held a pendant of drapery , that fell over a vase , but there is no mention of colour ou either of these

. But the part of the evidence which is yet to come is far the most important , as it has direct reference to the surface of the undraped portions of the figure having been left untouched by colour . "This statue , " Lucian adds , "was of Parian marble , and a blemish or stain on the left thi gh was more remarkable on account of the extraordinary brilliancy ,

" > . afivporvs" or "splendour" of the marble ; this is the peculiar characteristic of Parian marble ( far more beautiful than the Luna or Carrara marble we now use ) , and it illustrates that its native surface and hue were untouched . There is a very fine specimen of Parian marble in the British Museum , of a hand holding a butterfly , probably that of a Psyche , in this marble . There is an exquisite creamy

glowworm-like look about this marble , that is most charming . It has just the degree of transparency of young flesh itself , and possesses , as it were , a native semi-lucency of its own , like that of the milky-way , or of a summer sea . Let us , however , look to the further pertinence of Lucian ' s description . There was a stain ou the marble , he says , but adds that the effect of this was only like that of a foil which

rendered tho brilliancy of the rest of the marble more