Falkener, Edward: Daedalus or the causes and principles of the excellence of Greek sculpture (London, 1860)

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ANCIENT ART.

modelling in an extraordinary manner. The Mercury
or " Antinous " is an example of the delicate beauty
of form observable in a highly-polished and brilliant
marble. Photographers have observed that a white
plaster cast exhibits no perceptible shade, unless
exposed in a favourable light; and they and artists
sometimes colour their casts to make the modelling
more clear. All the works of Greek sculpture are
executed in Greek marble, of a rich colour :l it is
not white, like the Carrara marble, but suffused with
a delicate tint: no doubt this was by design, and
not resulting from necessity; and that chrysele-
phantine, sculpture owed its origin to an observance
of the beautiful natural colour of ivory. Even in
their architecture, we are told by Pliny that they
subdued the rawness of white marble by washes of
milk and saffron ;3 and from Vitruvius we learn that

1 " I never perhaps found so great a difference between a plaster
cast and marble, as in the Elgin marbles. The Pentelic marble of
which they are formed, has a warm yellowish tone, and a very
fine, but at the same time, a clear grain, by which these sculptures
have extraordinary animation, and peculiar solidity. The block,
for instance, of which the horse's head is made, has absolutely a
bony appearance, as if it were the petrified original horse that
issued from the hand of the goddess."—Dr. (x. F. Waagen, Worlcs
of Art and Artists in jEnrjland, i. 80.

2 These examples will be sufficient to convince every one of the
impolicy of " cleaning " ancient sculpture. The process of scrub-
bing and washing the Greek and Roman sculptures of the British
Museum was two years ago carried on for some months ; and
there is no doubt that the original polish, where existing, must be
injured by such a process, and all traces of ancient colouring become