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IX.—On some Ancient Paintings in churches of Athens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

N.H.J. Westlake
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Extract

The accompanying notes are made for the purpose of introducing to the Society the beautiful copies of ancient frescoes from the churches of Athens which have been lent for exhibition by the Marquis of Bute. His lordship had these copies made during his stay at Athens in 1885. He has given a full account of them in an essay on “Some Christian Monuments of Athens,” published in the Scottish Review (July 1885), and the descriptions of the pictures given in this paper are quoted from his lordship's essay. These paintings and the monuments containing them are of course subject to decay, but they are, it appears, in greater danger of wilful destruction from speculative excavations to unearth monuments more ancient, or from attempts to make use of the materials of such monuments for new buildings. It is from no wanton vandalism that such destruction arises, but it is evidently the result of the uncultivated condition of the present race of Athenians. In the article in the Scottish Review the writer thus comments on this unsatisfactory state of things:—

A decree of Otho L, dated May 20, 1836, placed at the disposal of the Ministry of Public Worship every ruined church in Greece, however important historically or however precious artistically, as a mine for the building of new places of public worship, the new University of Athens, &c. This decree is conceived as if no such things as History or Art existed. The results have been terrible, and Finlay, as an eye-witness, speaks of “the destruction of numerous mediæval churches which formed a valuable link in the records of Athens, and an interesting feature in Athenian topography, while they illustrated the history of art by their curious and sometimes precious paintings.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , 1888 , pp. 173 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1888

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References

page 173 note a Scottish Review, vi. 87Google Scholar.

page 174 note a In the various volumes of the Annales Archéologiques M. Didron has given some accounts of Christian paintings in Greece, with some slight illustrations by M. Paul Durand.

page 174 note b Early in the seventh century.

page 175 note a Scottish Review, vi. pp. 95–98Google Scholar.

page 177 note a See Scottish Review, vi. p. 95, noteGoogle Scholar.

page 177 note b Illustrated in the Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects, vol. ii. N.S. pp. 87–88Google Scholar, plates xxiii. and xxiv.

page 178 note a Byzantine Architecture, by Texier, Charles and Pullan, R. Popplewell. London. 1864Google Scholar.

page 178 note b A crown precisely like this is worn by St. Helena in a MS. of the fifteenth century; see Labarte's Histoire des Arts Industriels vol. ii. pl. lxxxviii. SO that this form continued in use for-a considerable period.

page 179 note a Arundel MS. 83. British Museum.

page 179 note b History of Painted Glass, vol. i. p. 42Google Scholar.

page 179 note c The crowns of the English kings at Fontevrault are somewhat of this fashion. See Stothard's Monumental Effigies.

page 181 note a I think the following description of the character of the pigments at St. Savin applies also to those from the Parthenon, shown in the drawing.

The white covers very little (is very transparent), scales and decomposes; the inscriptions (in the nave in white) are illegible. Black is seldom employed except in making grey, which is often used. The yellows and the reds (probably burnt ochres) are well preserved. The blue is often decayed, and is probably smalt or cobalt, both of which adhere badly, and assume in decay a green and dirty appearance. The green (at St. Savin) is rather brighter than usual, and may have been a natural earth or a green smalti (unknown to the Greeks). The dates assigned by M. Mérimée are:

Up to 1050 the choir and chapel of Our Lady.

“1050, nave, crypt, vestibule.

“1200–1300, up to Narthex.

page 181 note b MS. F. 6 f. British Museum.

page 182 note a This description is from the article in the Scottish Review, vi. pp. 102, 104–5Google Scholar.

page 182 note b Annales Archéologiques, vol. i, p. 156Google Scholar.

page 183 note a Note Annales Archéoloques, vol. xxii. p. 39Google Scholar

page 184 note a Page 35.

page 184 note b Vol. xiii.

page 185 note a Additional MS. 19352.

page 185 note b F. 6 f.

page 185 note c Scottish Review, vi. 99Google Scholar.

page 186 note a Scottish Review, vi. 100–102Google Scholar.

page 186 note b The representations are, however, not entirely in accordance with the recipe given for their composition by the author of the Greek MS., which has been translated into French by M. Paul Durand (Paris: Imprimerie Royale, mdcccxlv.) and edited by M. Didron. The original MS. is said by the Greeks to be of the tenth or elevent century, but M. Didron thinks it is not earlier than the fifteenth or sixteenth century (p. xxxv.).