Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/48

32 DIANAS TEMPLE AT EPHESUS. their staves. The parallels to the Hermes mentioned above have been likened to the Hermes of Praxiteles, but our figure has quite sufficient earlier sources (see Nos. 22, 23, 25, and 30 of the west frieze of the Parthenon). Our sculptures, then, are of the Attic school of the transitional period of the first half of the fourth century. Are the seated women three of the Muses ? The perfection of modelling and finish may best be judged from an exquisite fragment, being the cheek and side of the head of a female figure (No. 1,239). This lies neglected in a case, and has never, I believe, been photographed. It deserves setting against a background in a glass case. The remains in the Museum show that the archaic temple was fully painted. The throat of one of the volutes is still coloured bright red, and a leaf pattern around the top of the flutes of the column is painted. In one of the volutes a part of a gilt lead fillet was found. The sculptures of the gutter front and of the bottom drums of the columns were decorated. The hair, lips, and eyes of the figures were painted, and the dresses had bands of palmctte and key patterns. Sufficient was found to show that the New Temple was also painted, even to the bases, one of which was found coloured red in the scotia ; and Wood illustrates a small fragment of egg and tongue moulding (Plate X., Fig. 6), which had the ground coloured blue. The use of these colours, bright blue and red, picking out the grounds of reliefs, was the traditional method of coloration in works of this school, and is also found at the Mausoleum and at Priene. Near the temple a fragment of Doric cornice was discovered, showing vestiges of colour, " blue, vermilion, and gold." This probably belonged to the building which stood to the south of the temple court. Methods of Workmanship. Several of the volutes of the capitals in the Museum have never been completed. One of the capitals is nearly finished on one half, while the other half is only roughed out. It is evident that the capitals were fixed in an unfinished state, and a comparison with other examples shows that this was a general method of procedure. Choisy speaks of the " ravalciiicnt" Ahcr fixing as