Polychrome (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Polychrome is one of the terms used to describe the use of multiple colors in one entity. Polychromatic light is composed of a number of different wavelengths. Most often, the term is used in conjunction with certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colours. An early example of polychrome decoration was found in the Parthenon atop the Acropolis of Athens. By the time European antiquarianism took off in the 18th century, however, the paint that had been on classical buildings had completely weathered off. Thus, the antiquarians' and architects' first impressions of these ruins were that classical beauty was expressed only through shape and composition, lacking in robust colours, and it was that impression which informed neoclassical architecture. However, some classicists such as Jacques Ignace Hittorff noticed traces of paint on classical architecture and this slowly came to be accepted.