Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

PICTURA. PICTURA. 9109
conspicuouS for expression, character, and design; constitute single compositions, nor was any unity
the more minute discriminations of tone and local of time or action aimed at; they were painted
colour, united with dramatic composition and efiect, histories, and each group was no further connected
were not accomplishllcd until a later period. The with its contiguous groups, than that they all
limited space of this article necessarily precludes tended to illustrate different facts of the same story.
anything like a general notice of all the various Polygnotus has been termed the Michel Angelo
productions of Greek painters incidentally men- of antiquity. His style Was strictly ethic, for his
tioned in ancient writers. With the exception, whole art seems to have been employed in illustherefore, of occasionally mentioning works of ex- trating the humnan character; and that he did
traordinary celebrity, the notices of the various it well, the surname of Ethograph ('HiOoYpdmpos)
Greek painters of whom we have any satisfactory given to him by Aristotle and others sufficiently
knowledge will be restricted to those who, by the testifies. His principles of imitation may be dequality or peculiar character of their works, have fined to be those of individual representation indecontributed towards the establishment of any of pendently of any accidental combination of accesthe various styles of painting practised by the an- series; neither the picturesque, nor a general and
cients. A fuller account of each artist will be found indiscriminate picture of nature, formed any part
under the respective names in the Dictionary of of the art of Polygnotus or ofthe period. Whatever,
Greek tand Ronzan Biog-rccapy. therefore, was not absolutely necessary to illustrate
Polygnotus is frequently mentioned by ancient the principal object, was indicated merely by syrmwriters, but the passages of most importance re- bol: two or three warriors represented an army;
lating to his style are in the Poetica of Aristotle (c. a single hut, an1 encampment; a ship, a fleet; and
2 and 6) and the ITmagyies of Lucian (c. 7). The a single house, a city: and, generally, the laws of
notice in Pliny (II. N. xxxv. 35) is very cursory; basso-rilievo appear to have been the laws of
he mentions him amongst the manlay before Olymp. painting, and both were still to a great extent sub90, from which time he dates the commencement of servient to architecture.
his history, and simply states that he added much The principal contemporaries of Polygnotus were
to the art of painting, such as opening the mouth, Dionysius of Colophon, Pleistaenetus and Panaenus,
showing the teeth, improving the folds of draperies, of Athens, brothers (or the latter, perhaps, a nepainting transparent vests for women, or giving phew) of Pheidias, and Micon, also of Athens.
them various coloured head-dresses. Aristotle Dionysius was apparently an excellent portraits.peaks of the general character of the design and painter, the Holbein of antiquity; for besides the
expression of Polygnotus, Lucian of the colour; in testimony of Aristotle, quoted above, Plutarch
which respects both writers award him the highest (Time ol. 36) remarks that the works of Dionysius
praise. Aristotle (c. 2), speaking of imitation, wanted neither force nor spirit, but that they had
remarks that it must be either superior, inferior, or the appearance of being too much laboured. Poequal to its model, which he illustrates by the cases lygnotus also painted portraits. (Plut. Cimon, 4.)
of three painters: " Polygnotus," he says," paints Palsaenus assisted Pheidias in decorating the
nlen better than they are, Pauson worse, and statue and throne of the Olympian Jupiter. Micon
Dionysits as they are." This passage alludes evi- was particularly distinguished for the skill with
dently to the general quality of the design of which he painted horses. (Diet. of Bioe. s. vv.)
Po!-gnotus, which appears to have been of an ex- Prize contests also were already established, ill
alted and ideal character. In another passage (c. this early period, at Corinth and at Delphi. Pliny
6) lie speaks of him as an -y7anOh i0oypados, or (II. N. xxxv. 35) mentions that Panaelns was
ati excellent delineator of moral character and ex- defeated in one of these at the Pythian games, by
pression, and assigns him in this respect a com- Timagoras of Chalcis, who himself celebrated his
plete superiority over Zeuxis. From the passage own victory in verse.
iin Lucian, we may infer that Polygnotus, Euphra- The remarks of Quintilian (lust. Orator. xii. 10)'
nor, Apelles, and Agtion, were the best colourists respecting the style of this period are very curious
among the ancients according to the general opinion and interesting, although they do not accord en(dpiosro EyE'ov'To icfpado' Oait' da Xpa'a, r eal sa eu- tirely with the testimonies from Greek writers
iraipov 7roie2i'Oal rc7v E'r~oXY augrrv). He notices quoted above. He says, that notwithstanding the
also in the same passage the truth, the elegance, and simple colouring of Polygnotus, which was little
the flowing lightness of the draperies of Polygnotus. more than a rude foundation of what was afterPausanias mentions several of the works of wards accomplished, there were those who even
Polygnotus, but the most important were his two preferred his style to the styles of the greatest
great paintings, or series of paintings, in the Lesche painters who succeeded him; not, as Quintilian
of the temple of Apollo at Delphi, to a description thinks, without a certain degree of affectation.
of which Pausanias devotes seven chapters. (x. XII. EstablislJnent ofPainting.-Drac tatic style.
25 —31, Diet. of Bioy. s. v.) In the succeeding generation, about 420 B. c.,
The painting of the destruction of Troy (and the through the efforts of Apollodorus of Athens and
other was similar in style) seems to have contained Zeuxis of Heraclea, dramatic effect was added to
three rows of figures, with the names of each written the essential style of Polygnotus, causing an epoch
near them, ill distinct groups, covering the whole in the art of painting, which henceforth comprewall, each telling its own story, but all contributing hended a unity of sentiment and action, anld the
to relate the tale of the destruction of Troy. It is imitation of the local and accidental appearanlces of
evident from this description that we cannot decide objects, combined with the historic and generic reupon either the merits or the demerits of the corn- presentation of Polygnotus. The contemporaries
position, from the principles of art which guide the of Apollodorus and Zeuxis, and those who carried
rules of composition of modern times. Neither out their principles, were, Parrhasius of Ephesus,
perspective nor composition, as a whole, are to be Eupompus of Sicyon, and Timanthes of Cythnus,
expected in such works as these, for they did not all painters of the greatest fame. Athens and