A Greek marble statue or group is often not made of a single piece.  Thus the Aphrodite of Melos (page 249) was made of two principal pieces, the junction coming just above the drapery, while several smaller parts, including the left arm, were made separately and attached.  The Laocoon group (page 265), which Pliny expressly alleges to have been made of a single block, is in reality made of six.  Often the head was made separately from the body, sometimes of a finer quality of marble, and then inserted into a socket prepared for it in the neck of the figure.  And very often, when the statue was mainly of a single block, small pieces were attached, sometimes in considerable numbers.  Of course the joining was done with extreme nicety, and would have escaped ordinary observation.

In the production of a modern piece of marble sculpture, the artist first makes a clay model and then a mere workman produces from this a marble copy.  In the best period of Greek art, on the other hand, there seems to have been no mechanical copying of finished models.  Preliminary drawings or even clay models, perhaps small, there must often have been to guide the eye; but the sculptor, instead of copying with the help of exact measurements, struck out freely, as genius and training inspired him.  If he made a mistake, the result was not fatal, for he could repair his error by attaching a fresh piece of marble.  Yet even so, the ability to work in this way implies marvelous precision of eye and hand.  To this ability and this method we may ascribe something of the freedom, the vitality, and the impulsiveness of Greek marble sculpture—­qualities which the mechanical method of production tends to destroy.  Observe too that, while pediment-groups, metopes, friezes, and reliefs upon pedestals would often be executed by subordinates following the design of the principal artist, any important single statue or group in marble was in all probability chiseled by the very hand of the master.

Another fact of importance, a fact which few are able to keep constantly enough in their thoughts, is that Greek marble sculpture was always more or less painted.  This is proved both by statements in ancient authors and by the fuller and more explicit evidence of numberless actual remains. (See especially pages 148, 247.) From these sources we learn that eyes, eyebrows, hair, and perhaps lips were regularly painted, and that draperies and other accessories were often painted in whole or in part.  As regards the treatment of flesh the evidence is conflicting.  Some instances are reported where the flesh of men was colored a reddish brown, as in the sculpture of Egypt.  But the evidence seems to me to warrant the inference that this was unusual in marble sculpture.  On the “Alexander” sarcophagus the nude flesh has been by some process toned down to an ivory tint, and this treatment may have been the rule, although most sculptures which retain remains of color show no trace of this.  Observe that wherever color was applied, it was laid on in “flat” tints, i.e., not graded or shaded.