There is little room for doubting that all the Greek temples were richly decorated in colours, but traces and indications are all that remain: these, however, are sufficient to prove that a very large amount of colour was employed, and that probably ornaments (Figs. 105 to 120) were painted upon many of those surfaces which were left plain by the mason, especially on the cornices, and that mosaics (Fig. 87) and coloured marbles, and even gilding, were freely used. There is also ground for believing that as the use of carved enrichments increased with the increasing adoption of the Ionic and Corinthian styles, less use was made of painted decorations. _Architectural Character._ Observations which have been made during the course of this and the previous chapters will have gone far to point out the characteristics of Greek art. An archaic and almost forbidding severity, with heavy proportions and more strength than grace, marks the earliest Greek buildings of which we have any fragments remaining. Dignity, sobriety, refinement, and beauty are the qualities of the works of the best period. The latest buildings were more rich, more ornate, and more slender in their proportions and to a certain extent less severe. [Illustration: FIG. 86.--METOPE FROM THE PARTHENON. CONFLICT BETWEEN A CENTAUR AND ONE OF THE LAPITHÆ.] [Illustration: FIG. 87.--MOSAIC FROM THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS, OLYMPIA.] Most carefully studied proportions prevailed, and were wrought out to a pitch of completeness and refinement which is truly astounding. Symmetry was the all but invariable law of composition. Yet in certain respects--as, for example, the spacing and position of the columns--a degree of freedom was enjoyed which Roman architecture did not possess. Repetition ruled to the almost entire suppression of variety. Disclosure of the arrangement and construction of the building was almost complete, and hardly a trace of concealment can be detected. Simplicity reigns in the earliest examples; the elaboration of even the most ornamental is very chaste and graceful; and the whole effect of Greek architecture is one of harmony, unity, and refined power. [Illustration: EXAMPLES OF GREEK ORNAMENT IN THE NORTHERN PORTICO OF THE ERECHTHEIUM--SHOWING THE ORNAMENTATION OF THE CEILING. FIG. 88.--SECTION OF THE PORTICO OF THE ERECHTHEIUM. FIG. 89.--PLAN OF THE PORTICO--LOOKING UP.]