A hollow bronze statue being much lighter than one in marble and much less brittle, a sculptor could be much bolder in posing a figure of the former material than one of the latter.  Hence when a Greek bronze statue was copied in marble in Roman times, a disfiguring support, not present in the original, had often to be added (cf.  Figs, 101, 104, etc.).  The existence of such a support in a marble work is, then, one reason among others for assuming a bronze original.  Other indications pointing the same way are afforded by a peculiar sharpness of edge, e.g., of the eyelids and the eyebrows, and by the metallic treatment of the hair.  These points are well illustrated by Fig. 76.  Notice especially the curls, which in the original would have been made of separate strips of bronze, twisted and attached after the casting of the figure.

Bronze reliefs were not cast, but produced by hammering.  This is what is called repousse work.  These bronze reliefs were of small size, and were used for ornamenting helmets, cuirasses, mirrors, and so on.

(4) Gold and ivory.  Chryselephantine statues, i.e., statues of gold and ivory, must, from the costliness of the materials, have been always comparatively rare.  Most of them, though not all, were temple-images, and the most famous ones were of colossal size.  We are very imperfectly informed as to how these figures were made.  The colossal ones contained a strong framework of timbers and metal bars, over which was built a figure of wood.  To this the gold and ivory were attached, ivory being used for flesh and gold for all other parts.  The gold on the Athena of the Parthenon (cf. page 186) weighed a good deal over a ton.  But costly as these works were, the admiration felt for them seems to have been untainted by any thought of that fact.

(5) Terra-cotta.  This was used at all periods for small figures, a few inches high, immense numbers of which have been preserved to us.  But large terra-cotta figures, such as were common in Etruria, were probably quite exceptional in Greece.

Greek sculpture may be classified, according to the purposes which it served, under the following heads: 

(1) Architectural sculpture.  A temple could hardly be considered complete unless it was adorned with more or less of sculpture.  The chief place for such sculpture was in the pediments and especially in the principal or eastern pediment.  Relief-sculpture might be applied to Doric metopes or an Ionic frieze.  And finally, single statues or groups might be placed, as acroteria, upon the apex and lower corners of a pediment.  Other sacred buildings besides temples might be similarly adorned.  But we hear very little of sculpture on secular buildings.

(2) Cult-images.  As a rule, every temple or shrine contained at least one statue of the divinity, or of each divinity, worshiped there.