chryselephantine

views updated May 23 2018

chryselephantine.
1. Literally, made of gold and ivory, it also described Antique wooden sculptures overlaid with those materials, the draperies being covered with gold and the nude parts of the figure covered with ivory (e.g. the Athena Parthenos of Phidias). Quatremère de Quincy made a study of chryselephantine sculpture (1814) which was the starting-point for Hittorff's work on Classical polychromy.

2. The term was sparingly applied to the chaste white-and-gilt colour-schemes of early Greek Revival interiors before polychromy was introduced.

Bibliography

Dinsmoor (1950);
Metcalf (1977)