DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4376#0203
RESTORATION 03? THE MAUSOLEUM. 185
pteron of the Mausoleum stood, may have been
approached by an inclined plane or ramp winding-
round through the massive masonry of the base-
ment. This ramp may have been used during the
construction of the building for the conveyance of
materials, and for the passage of workmen. There
are such passages in the Nur-hags.
All the architectural members of the Mauso-
leum were painted. The colours were pure reel and
blue, the materials employed being ultramarine and
vermilion, or pigments equal to them, in intensity.
The system adopted seems to have been to tone down
the whole of the marble with a coat of varnish and
wax, to paint all grounds of sculpture and ornament
blue, and to pick out the mouldings with red.
On the first disinterment of one of the lacunar
stones,™ there still remained in the soffit a thick flake
of blue colour, which for a short time retained its
original intensity; and, though on the larger marbles
the pigments have now for the most part scaled
off from exposure, blue and red colour are still
visible on some of the smaller mouldings preserved
in the British Museum.11 The various parts of the
order will be more particularly explained in the
description of the plates. (See Volume I.)
m This was a fragment similar to the stone engraved, Plate •
XXVII. fig. 8.
n See Plate XXIX. where facsimiles of these colours are £riven.
pteron of the Mausoleum stood, may have been
approached by an inclined plane or ramp winding-
round through the massive masonry of the base-
ment. This ramp may have been used during the
construction of the building for the conveyance of
materials, and for the passage of workmen. There
are such passages in the Nur-hags.
All the architectural members of the Mauso-
leum were painted. The colours were pure reel and
blue, the materials employed being ultramarine and
vermilion, or pigments equal to them, in intensity.
The system adopted seems to have been to tone down
the whole of the marble with a coat of varnish and
wax, to paint all grounds of sculpture and ornament
blue, and to pick out the mouldings with red.
On the first disinterment of one of the lacunar
stones,™ there still remained in the soffit a thick flake
of blue colour, which for a short time retained its
original intensity; and, though on the larger marbles
the pigments have now for the most part scaled
off from exposure, blue and red colour are still
visible on some of the smaller mouldings preserved
in the British Museum.11 The various parts of the
order will be more particularly explained in the
description of the plates. (See Volume I.)
m This was a fragment similar to the stone engraved, Plate •
XXVII. fig. 8.
n See Plate XXIX. where facsimiles of these colours are £riven.