Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine, Vol. 76, No. 467, September 1854Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine, Vol. 76, No. 467, September 1854
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
“But colour was used, as we know,” says Mr Owen Jones; “and Pausanias
(_Arcad._, lib. viii. cap. 39) describes a statue of Bacchus as having
all those portions not hidden by draperies painted vermilion, the body
being of gilded wood. He also distinctly says that statues made of
gypsum were painted, describing a statue of Bacchus γυψου πεποιημενον,
which was—the language is explicit—ornamented with paint,
(επικεκοσμημενον γραφῃ.)” These are statues of Bacchus, and, as the
Apologist is reminded by his commentator, Mr Lloyd, “apparently
ithyphallic,” and therefore painted red. The draperies are the
assumption of the writer; he should have said ivy and laurel. Mr Owen
Jones, to render his examples “abundant,” writes _statues_ in the latter
part of the quotation, whereas the word in his authority, Pausanias, is
singular. We stay not to inquire if γραφη here means paint, though,
speaking of another statue, Pausanias uses the verb and its congenial
noun in another sense—“ἐπίγραμμα ἐπἄυτῆ γραφῆναι.” We the more readily
grant it was painted vermilion, because it was a Bacchic statue; and
grant that it was seen by Pausanias. We daresay it was ancient enough;
but for any proof we must not look to Pausanias, who lived at Rome 170th
year of the Christian era;—and here it must be borne in mind, that of
the innumerable statues spoken of by that writer, of marble and other
materials, the supposed painted are a very few exceptions. Not only does
he speak of marble, without any mention of colouring, but of its
whiteness. In this matter, indeed, the exceptions prove the rule of the
contrary. Before we proceed to the examples taken from Virgil—weak
enough—let us see if there may not be found something nearer the time of
Phidias than any authorities given. Well, then, we have an eyewitness,
one who must not only have seen the statues of Phidias, but probably
conversed with Phidias himself—Æschylus. If such statues as he speaks of
were painted generally, and as a necessary part of their completion,
could he have brought into poetic use and sentiment their vacancy of
eyes? It is a remarkable passage. He is describing Menelaus in his
gallery full of the large statues of Helen. It is in the “Agamemnon:”
Εὐμόρφων γὰρ κολοσσῶν
Ἔχθεται χάρις ἀνδρί.
Ὀμμάτων δ’ ἐν ἀχηνίαις
Ἔῤῥει πᾶσ’ Ἀφροδίτα.
There was “no speculation in those eyes.” The eyes were not painted
certainly; as the poet saw the statues in his mind’s eye, so had he seen
them with his visible organs. The charm of love was not in them, because
the outward form of the eye was only represented in the marble. The
love-charm was not in those “vacancies of eyes.” Schütz has this note
upon the passage: “Quamvis nimirum eleganter fabricatæ sint statuæ,
carent tamen oculis, adeoque admirationem quidem excitare possunt amorem
non item.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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