I was led to adopt this mode of treating the draperies from the
inspection of the Louvre collection of terra-cottas, where the draperies
are very well preserved. They are mostly pale blue and pale pink, the
pale blue with a pink border and the pink drapery with a blue border. I
have arranged the draperies in the way I felt most conducive to the
general effect, so as to bring the whole into harmony. The colours of
the other portions of the dresses are suggested by the materials which
they may be presumed to represent.
In placing this experiment before the public, I am quite aware how vain
would be the hope that I had produced a result worthy of the Greeks;
where there is so little to guide, success is well nigh impossible. The
most that I could hope to attain was to produce a result that might have
existed, and that would not have been discordant with the other portions
of a Greek monument. My failures even would answer a useful purpose, if
they served to direct other minds to work out this most interesting
problem, and to induce further researches on the monuments of Greece,
which have hardly yet been examined in this direction, because they have
not as yet been examined with faith, but rather with reluctance.
The experiment cannot be fairly tried till tried on marble, and in
conditions of space, atmosphere, &c., similar to those under which the
originals were placed.
I would ask those critics who stand on the ground of traditional
opinion, not too rashly by hard words to attempt to stop the inquiry
which this experiment may suggest. The facts are too strong to be put
aside by any opinion. If all who are anxious for the truth will only
seek it, there is little doubt that we may approach, if we do not reach
it.
I have done all in my power to aid the cause. I have stood in the
breach, and shall be content should others walk over me to a more
complete victory. I am only anxious, in the meanwhile, that the Greeks
should not be condemned on my account.
I have no authority whatever for the colouring of the monument of
Lysicrates in the Great Transept. One fact deserves to be recorded, the
beautiful bas-reliefs of the frieze were absolutely invisible from
below, when in white, and this made me certain that it was a monument
designed to receive colour, and I therefore determined to attempt its
restoration.