Ο Ουρανίσκος (ή αλλιώς το αστέρι της Βεργίνας)

Ο Ουρανίσκος (όπως τον αποκαλεί ο Meyer) ήταν ένα από τα διακοσμητικά μοτίβα που κοσμούσαν την οροφή των Προπυλαίων της Ακρόπολης (και πολλών άλλων ναών) και που βρίσκονταν στο μνημείο τουλάχιστον μέχρι το τέλος του 19ου αιώνα. Αρχαιολογικές και άλλες πηγές:

Source: Penrose (1888) An Investigation into the principles of Athenian Architecture

Source: Bohn, Richard Die Propylaeen der Akropolis zu Athen Berlin u.a. 1882

Source:  Joachim Buhlmann, Die Architektur des klassischen Altertums und der Renaissance, 1872

Franz Sales Meyer, A Handbook of Ornament, New York : Architectural Book Pub. Co. 1896

Uraniscus, the star-like decoration . of a Greek coffer ceiling. From the Propylaea in Athens. Gold on a blue ground. 

Der Ornamentenschatz; ein Musterbuch stilvoller Ornamente aus allen Kunstepochen,

  Dolmetsch, H. (Heinrich), 1887, Stuttgart, J. Hoffmann

The original scheme of polychrome decoration in the entrance hall at the British Museum, by Ian Bristow

"When completed in 1847, Robert Smirke’s entrance hall at the British Museum, London, was embellished by his brother Sidney Smirke and the decorator Leonard Collmann with an elaborate polychromatic scheme derived from ancient Greek sources. 

The hall and staircase of the British Museum were constructed in the 1840s to the designs of Sir Robert Smirke (1780–1867), and opened to the public on 19th April 1847.1Their scheme of polychrome decoration, which was based on the study of antique precedents, appears to have been undertaken on the initiative of Smirke’s younger brother Sydney (1798–1877), who succeeded as architect following his elder sibling’s illness in 1845 and resignation the following year. Accordingly, in a report to the Trustees in December 1846, Sydney Smirke wrote: If done sparingly and cautiously; in strict conformity with ancient examples, and confined chiefly to the mouldings, I am quite confident of a satisfactory result. Whatever doubt there may be as to the propriety of this kind of embellishment in the exhibition rooms, I apprehend there would be none as to its introduction in the hall and Staircase where there is more architectural effect than in any other part of the interior of the building.2 The scheme was executed by Collmann and Davis, and appears to have been complete when the hall was opened, being depicted in a woodcut and described in the Illustrated London News in April 1847."

Ναός του Ηφαίστου, Αθήνα

Association for Studies in the Conservation of Historic Buildings, TRANSACTIONS Volume 27 2002–3, The original scheme of polychrome decoration 4 in the entrance hall at the British Museum IAN BRISTOW