Architecture And Archæology.

remarkable . Now , however much this fancied foil , but real blemish , was converted into an additional charm by the lover-like attachment and consequent special pleading of the admirers of this cherished work , you may bo sure that the sculptor himself , when he made it , was not of this way of thinking . Solicitous , as we sculptors are , to obtain tho purest and most spotless marble , especially for this class of

work , we may be quite sure that Praxiteles would have been very glad , if he could , to have concealed the blemish in question , and that if his friend Nicias had really been in tho habit of colouring his statues , it was on an occasion like this that his services would have been especially in requisition . Paintedthereforeas regards the fleshcertainlit appears

, , , y that this chef-d'oeuvre of ancient art was not , or the blemish in question would have been the first thing to have been concealed . Neither could it have been stained , both because there is no mention of this , but also tho word Xap-irpoT-ns is conclusive on this point . Also , I would submit that it were as vain to paint the lily , or gild refined gold , or varnish a diamondas to attempt to add to the poetry of pure Parian

, marble by any colour enchancement whatever . When also this remarkable instance of the non-colouring of this chef-d'mavre of ancient art is brought to boar upon the general practice of those times , in respect to colouringmarble statues , the evidence afforded by the passages I have

quoted is the stronger , just because it is negative . Had Pliny or Lucian felt called on to say that the Venus of Cnidus was not painted or stained , it might have been argued that she was an exception to a rule that otherwise prevailed ; but not a word appears on this subject . Instead of this , both writers treat the subject just as wc should now , or at anjr other time when the painting of marble statues

has been , as now , not the general practice . There arc various other points which , having been gone into before , I avoid repeating , and I rather look to upholding my views , by contrasting two , as it has happened , on each side of the jirincrpal passages on this subject , than by an elaborate array of various authorities . Nevertheless , I am prepared to allow that archaic and iEginctan sculpture may have

been frequcntlj- treated with direct colour , both from the force of old precedent , and from each art , painting and sculpture , not having been original ^ sufficiently advanced to go alone . But assuredly I do not believe , as indeed there is no proof , thatpn the best times of Greek art , independent marble statues were ever painted , nor indeed any higher wrought statues at all paintedexcept for of

, purposes Idolatry . And this brings me at once to one proposition I have to put before you . It is this—that the ancient Greek statues were only painted when they were idols , and when they were intended to be worshipped ; and thus when these statues wei'c painted , in Greece , that it was jiricst-eraft , and not art-craft that painted them .

On The Architecture Of The Eleventh Century.

ON THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY .

( Continued from page 328 . ) Wherever we go and examine the buildings carefully with their history , we find it amounts to much the same story : the character of each century is distinctly marked every where ; and although there is , in each country , and in each province , a strong national and provincial character , yet

these are altogether subordinate to the character of the age in which the building was erected . King William also founded Battle Abbey , in Sussex , on the site of the battle of Hastings , the year after the battle , but wc have no work of this period remaining there . In 1070-78 , Archbishop Lanfranc rebuilt his cathedral at Canterbury ; but within fifty years afterwards the choir was

again rebuilt by Conrad and Ernnlf , and the nave subsequently , so that we have none of Lanfrauc ' s work remaining ; from which wo may infer that the work of this period was still very inferior to that of the 12 th centuries , or the architect would not have thought it necessary to rebuild work so recently erected . In further confirmation of this it innv be

mentioned that of the thirty-two Benedictine monasteries founded in the 11 th century , there are only three or four of which we have any buildings remaining that belong to this period . Of the Cluniac priories , four only belong to this century—Lewes , Castle-acre , Wenlock , and Bermondsey , — and in neither of these , I believe , are there any remains earlier than the 12 th century .

In the years from 1070 to 1095 , the Abbey of Bury St Edmund's was rebuilt by Abbot Baldwin , asserted by the--the sacrists Thurstan ancl Tolin , "The Church of the Monastery , consecrated in 1035 , having been for the most part , like its predecessor , built of wood , though not finished , was still unworthy both of St . Edmund and of the establishment endowed with such magnificent remedies as St ..

Edmund's Bury ; accordingly , under the auspices of Abbot Baldwin , the sacrists Thurstan and Tolin demolished the church which had been so recently constructed . King William the Conqueror on this occasion issued his precept to the Abbot of Peterborough , commanding that the abbot and convent of St . Edmund should bo permitted to take sufiiccnt stone for the erection of their church from the

quarries of Barnock , in Northamptonshire , granting at tbe same time an exemption from the usual tolls chargeable upon its carriage from that place to Bury . " Baldwin was a monk of St . Denis , at Paris then prior at Dcerhust , iu Gloucestershire , a coll to St . Denis . Lydgato says " he was greatly expert iu craft of medicine , " King Edward the Confessor granted to him for his monastery the privilege of

a mint . He " was also in great favour with King William the Conqueror , under a charter from whom ho made considerable acquisitions to his monastery . " * The new edifice was completed in 1095 , and the body of St . Edmund was translated into it in 1096 . f The square massive gateway tower of the abbey is standing , and probably belonging to this century ; the

shallow porch and rich doorway on the west side are evidently insertions of a subsequent period . Tho building of the churches of Jarrow and Monkswearmouth , in the county of Durham , is recorded by Bede , and the dedication stone of Jarrow has been preserved , recording the date of 685 . It was long considered that the existing towers belonged to that early period ; but tho researches of

the late Dr . Kaine have demonstrated that they have both been rebuilt subsequently to tho Norman Conquest . The original churches were destroyed by the Danes in 867 , and had laid waste for above two hundred years , when some , monks from Durham endeavoured to restore them to divine service : they found tho walls alone standing , without a roof and choked up with trees , briars , and thorns , as wc are told

in tho chronicle of Simeon of Durham , who was living at the time . This was in 1078 , and " shortly after , when the bishop saw the monks wishful to rebuild tho church itself , and the ruined monastic dwelling-places , he gave them the vill of Jarrow and its appendages . " There is little doubt that thc \ r carried out this intention : tho masonry of the existing tower is of early Norman character , but not earlier ,

and a portion of a Saxon cross is built in as old material , The history of Monkswearinonth is tho same as that of Jarrow ; but here it would seem that the new church was not on tho site of the old one ; for Dr . Kaine has found mention of the old church , used as a bam , in 1360 in an inventory of the cell of Monkswearmouth preserved at Durham ; and again in 1-1-1-7 , where it is called in English "the Alde-Kirke . "

These inventories have been printed by tho Surtces Society ,, edited by Dr . Kaino . J A . D . 1077-1115 , the church of St . Alban ' s Abbey was entirely rebuilt by Abbot Paul , of Caen , according to the distinct evidence of William of Malmesbury , Henry of Huttingdon , the "Saxon Chronicle , " and the "Annals of St . Fdmuud " Bury . " I am particular in mentioning the authorities in this instance because the fact has been much doubted , and