paintings, but the principle of their composition and the accuracy of their drawing.
|
| From Monumenti dell’ Instituto di Correspondenza archeologica, xi. 40. |
| Fig. 29.—Vase of Orvieto. (The Children of Niobe.) |
Polygnotus of Thasos was regarded by his compatriots as a
great ethical painter. His colouring and composition were alike
very simple, his figures quiet and statuesque, his drawing careful
and precise. He won his fame largely by incorporating in his
works the best current ideas as to mythology, religion and morals.
In particular his painting of Hades with its rewards and punishments,
which was on the walls of the building of the people of
Cnidus at Delphi, might be considered as a great religious work,
parallel to the paintings of the Campo Santo at Pisa or to the
painted windows of such churches as that at Fairford. But he
also introduced improvements in perspective and greater freedom
in grouping.
|
| Arch. Zeit. 1878, pl. 22. |
| Fig. 30.—Vase Drawing. |
It is fortunate for us that the Greek traveller Pausanias has left us very careful and detailed descriptions of some of the most important of the frescoes of Polygnotus, notably of the Taking of Troy and the Visit to Hades, which were at Delphi. A comparison of these descriptions with vase paintings of the middle of the 5th century has enabled us to discern with great probability the principles of Polygnotan drawing and perspective. Professor Robert has even ventured to restore the paintings on the evidence of vases. We here represent one of the scenes depicted on a vase found at Orvieto (fig. 29), which is certainly Polygnotan in character. It represents the slaying of the children of Niobe by Apollo and Artemis. Here we may observe a remarkable perspective. The different heights of the rocky background are represented by lines traversing the picture on which the figures stand; but the more distant figures are no smaller than the nearer. The forests of Mount Sipylus are represented by a single conventional tree. The figures are beautifully drawn, and full of charm; but there is a want of energy in the action.
There can be little doubt that the school of Polygnotus exercised great influence on contemporary sculpture. Panaenus, brother of Pheidias, worked with Polygnotus, and many of the groupings found in the sculptures of the Parthenon remind us of those usual with the Thasian master. At this simple and early stage of art there was no essential difference between fresco-painting and coloured relief, light and shade and aerial perspective being unknown. We reproduce two vase-paintings, one (fig. 30) a group of man and horse which closely resembles figures in the Panathenaic frieze of the Parthenon (fig. 31); the other (fig. 32) representing Victory pouring water for a sacrificial ox to drink, which reminds us of the balustrade of the shrine of Wingless Victory at Athens.
|
| Fig. 31.—Part of Frieze of the Parthenon. |
Most writers on Greek painting have supposed that after the middle of the 5th century the technique of painting rapidly improved. This may well have been the case; but we have little means of testing the question. Such improvements would soon raise such a barrier between fresco-painting and vase-painting,—which by its very nature must be simple and architectonic,—that vases can no longer be used with confidence as evidence for contemporary painting. The stories told us by Pliny of the lives of Greek painters are mostly of a trivial and untrustworthy character. Some of them are mentioned in this Encyclopaedia under the names of individual artists. We can only discern a few general facts. Of Agatharchus of Athens we learn that he painted, under compulsion, the interior of the house of Alcibiades. And we are told that he painted a scene for the tragedies of Aeschylus or Sophocles. This has led some writers to suppose that he attempted illusive landscape; but this is contrary to the possibilities of the time; and it is fairly certain that what he really did was to paint the wooden front of the stage building in imitation of architecture; in fact he painted a permanent architectural background, and not one suited to any particular play. Of other painters who flourished at the end of the century, such as Zeuxis and Aristides, it will be best to speak under the next period.
|
| From Gerhard’s Auserlesene Vasenbilder, ii. pl. 1. |
| Fig. 32.—Nikē and Bull. |
It is now generally held, in consequence of evidence furnished
by tombs, that the 5th century saw the end of the making of
vases on a great scale at Athens for export to Italy and Sicily.
And in fact few things in the history of art are more remarkable
than the rapidity with which vase-painting at Athens reached
its highest point and passed it on the downward road. At the
beginning of the century black-figured ware was scarcely out
of fashion, and the masters of the severe red-figured style,
Pamphaeus, Epictetus and their contemporaries, were in vogue.
