Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/103

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THE PARTHENON AND ITS SCULPTURES. 87 is carefully drawn in Laborde's fine book. All the mouldings, both outside and within the peristyle, had painted patterns, with the exception of the large swelling mouldings of the capitals, on which no trace has been found. I should think it likely that the succession of small fillets and hollows beneath the capitals were coloured and gilded. Within the peristyle, the band above the frieze, the antse capitals, and the coffered ceiling, were fully decorated. The blue is said to have been deep, the green was of verdigris, and the red bright. No actual gilding was found, but " there can be little doubt that the gilding is necessary to complete the harmony of the colour- ing" (Penrose). Two or three fragments in the Museum still Fig. 73. — Frieze : Hermes, Dionysos, Demeter, and Ares. bear traces of the painted pattern-work ; one length of the band above the frieze shows the double fret, and a similar band from the Propylaea is decorated with Lesbian leaves. Many writers remark that the outlines of the patterns were first traced with a sharp tool. The colouring at the Parthenon followed an almost fixed tradition. At the Theseum, for instance, Sauer found that the triglyphs and mutules were blue, the drops and other small surfaces red, the background of metopes red, and of the frieze blue, while all the mouldings were patterned. " No doubt all the Greek temples were ornamented. The temples of ^gina and of Apollo in Arcadia (Basss), are enriched with a profusion of painted ornaments. The statues found in the H