chryselephantine

chryselephantine , Greek sculptural technique developed in the 6th cent. BC Sculptures, especially temple colossi, were made with an inner core of wood overlaid with ivory, to simulate flesh, and gold, to represent drapery. The great Parthenon Athena, now lost, was chryselephantine.

chryselephantine. Term describing statues incorporating gold (Greek: khrusos) and ivory (Greek: elephantinos), the gold typically being used for draperies and the ivory for flesh. The technique was used on a small scale in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Crete, and in colossal statues by the Greeks from the 6th century bc, the gold and ivory being carried on a wooden framework. Because of the cost, the technique was used only in the most important religious images, the most famous being the enormous statues of Athena and Zeus that Phidias made respectively for the Parthenon at Athens and the temple of Zeus at Olympia.

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)