DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68796#0146
126 Effect in the Arts of Form part h
as was urged about its use in architecture, viz., that the
ancients painted their stone statues just as they painted
their stone buildings, more as a matter of tradition than of
deliberate artistic choice. This point is one of so great
importance for the theory of sculpture that it demands a
few words of special notice.
§ 84. The colouring of antique Sculpture.
The practice of the Greeks is so often invoked in dis-
cussions of this kind, that it is well to know in each case
what the ‘ practice of the Greeks ’ really means. The
Hellenic artist, it must never be forgotten, inherited old
oriental traditions which were especially strong in matters
of technique. Hence the technical processes of sculpture
employed by a Pheidias for the production of the world’s
masterpieces of the plastic art, were evolved from those
that had been used from time immemorial for various kinds
of decorative and architectural carving, and for the making
of big dolls in the form of temple-idols.
(1) The use of colour on friezes, on pediment groups and
metopes and other pieces of architectural carving, followed
naturally from the traditional employment of colour on the
building itself, on which a word has already been said.
Colour here was inevitable, and we cannot argue from its
use that the Greeks would have elected, as a matter of free
artistic choice, to tint the ground of a relief or paint the
dress and armour of a figure, when fashioned as independ-
ent works of art. The colours used in this architectural
sculpture were decorative not realistic. Shields might be
painted blue one side and red the other, but not coloured
so as to imitate bronze or leather.
(2) The independent statue, fashioned either in stone
or wood, appears in the oldest Egypt, and has about it a
as was urged about its use in architecture, viz., that the
ancients painted their stone statues just as they painted
their stone buildings, more as a matter of tradition than of
deliberate artistic choice. This point is one of so great
importance for the theory of sculpture that it demands a
few words of special notice.
§ 84. The colouring of antique Sculpture.
The practice of the Greeks is so often invoked in dis-
cussions of this kind, that it is well to know in each case
what the ‘ practice of the Greeks ’ really means. The
Hellenic artist, it must never be forgotten, inherited old
oriental traditions which were especially strong in matters
of technique. Hence the technical processes of sculpture
employed by a Pheidias for the production of the world’s
masterpieces of the plastic art, were evolved from those
that had been used from time immemorial for various kinds
of decorative and architectural carving, and for the making
of big dolls in the form of temple-idols.
(1) The use of colour on friezes, on pediment groups and
metopes and other pieces of architectural carving, followed
naturally from the traditional employment of colour on the
building itself, on which a word has already been said.
Colour here was inevitable, and we cannot argue from its
use that the Greeks would have elected, as a matter of free
artistic choice, to tint the ground of a relief or paint the
dress and armour of a figure, when fashioned as independ-
ent works of art. The colours used in this architectural
sculpture were decorative not realistic. Shields might be
painted blue one side and red the other, but not coloured
so as to imitate bronze or leather.
(2) The independent statue, fashioned either in stone
or wood, appears in the oldest Egypt, and has about it a