when there were only two they were both painted red, which was
sometimes the only colour employed when there were three. We
could not ascertain what particular colour was used for the abacus
and echinus, for we seldom found any traces of colour remaining
either upon them or upon the shafts of the columns. In one or two
instances, however, the abacus seems to have been red, and in one
which we have given in plate (p. 452), it appears to have been something
of a lilac colour. The colours of the metopes and architraves
must also be left in uncertainty; and, indeed, it may perhaps be
inferred from our never finding any positive colour remaining upon
them, that the larger parts of the entablature were left plain,'and
that the smaller, or ornamental, parts only were painted. We are
ourselves inclined to think that this was the- case, as well with regard
to the entablature as to the columns; for we should otherwise have
found the parts in question occasionally painted, which we do not
recollect to have decidedly seen.
I t may here be remarked, with respect to what appears to have
been, the established colour of the triglyphs at Cyrene, that there is
a singular correspondence between this practice of the Cyreneansand
that which is attributed by Vitruvius to the artificers of early times
when wood was used instead of stone in the construction of their
buildings. For the parts which, in the wooden structures alluded to,
corresponded to, the triglyphs of later , periods, are said by this author
to have been covered with blue wax; and we have already stated
that blue was the prevailing colour of the triglyphs in buildings of
all classes at Cyrene. I t would thus appear that the colours, like
the forms, of buildings, were adopted in imitation of early custom;
and this circumstance will alone sufficiently account for the uniformity,
in point of colour, of one building with another; and may
be considered as a reason why fancy or caprice were not, allowed,
in these instances, to have, their usual weight among a people
who were strenuously attached to the practices and customs of
their ancestors. “ In imitation of these early inventions, and of
works executed in timber,” (says Vitruvius, in the words of Mr,
Wilkins, his English' translator,) j§ the ancients, in constructing
their edifices of stone or marble, adopted the forms which were,
there observed to exist. I t was a general practice among the
artificers of former times to lay beams transversely upon the
walls; the intervals between them were then closed, and the
whole surmounted with corona; and fastigia of pleasing forms,
executed in wood. The projecting parts were afterwards cut
away, so that tl\e ends of the beams and the walls were in the
same plane; but the sections presenting a rude appearance, tablets,
formed like the triglyphs of more modem buildings, and covered
with blue wax, were affixed to them, by which expedient the ends,
which before offended the eye, now produced a pleasing effect.
Thus the ancient disposition of the beams supporting the roof
is the original to which we may attribute the introduction of
triglyphs into Doric buildings.” (Wilkins’s Vitruvius, vol. i, p.
63, 4.).
Whatever may be the truth of these remarks of Vitruvius respecting
the origin of the triglyph, it is singular that there should be so