Notes: 23)

Gage (Colour and Culture, pp. 29-30) points out the
correspondence of the four colours to the four 'humours'
which, according to Apelles' contemporary Hippocrates,
made up a human being: blood (red), phlegm (white),
and yellow and black bile. Galen in the 2nd century AD
extended this doctrine to the complexion, making it
available to painters of the figure. Of the Fayum portraits,
Gage observes: 'there is very little indication of the use of
such colouring [as an indication of personality] in the most
impressive body of ancient portrait-painting, the tempera
or encaustic mummy-effigies of Roman Egypt, which employ
a similarly restricted palette for flesh. Most of them were
painted about the time that Galen's interpretations of
Hippocratic doctrine were spreading throughout the
Roman world.'