DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0211
CHAP. XII
GREEK PAINTING
191
On the other side of the vase, in the scene of the slaying of
the Niobidae, we .notice that a single tree, and that depicted in
a summary way, represents the forests on Mount Sipylus. In
just the same way, in Polygnotus' representation of Hades, a
single tree stood for the sacred grove of Persephone. Niobe
herself does not appear on the vase — only three of her sons
and one of her daughters, of which four figures two lie dead
in the foreground, two fly to right and left.
Can we venture to see between the vase-paintings of this
group and the works of the Polygnotan school a still closer
connection ? Is it possible to prove in any case that the vase-
painting is a copy, or at all events a reminiscence, of the mural
painting ? The range of subjects is certainly the same: Micon
painted the return of the Argonauts, and such subjects from
the exploits of early heroes were common to fresco painters and
vase-painters. Many archaeologists have from time to time
not unnaturally attempted to find on vases scenes and groups
repeated from some of the great fresco-paintings of Athens
and elsewhere. Dr. Kliigmann, for example, in his excellent
GREEK PAINTING
191
On the other side of the vase, in the scene of the slaying of
the Niobidae, we .notice that a single tree, and that depicted in
a summary way, represents the forests on Mount Sipylus. In
just the same way, in Polygnotus' representation of Hades, a
single tree stood for the sacred grove of Persephone. Niobe
herself does not appear on the vase — only three of her sons
and one of her daughters, of which four figures two lie dead
in the foreground, two fly to right and left.
Can we venture to see between the vase-paintings of this
group and the works of the Polygnotan school a still closer
connection ? Is it possible to prove in any case that the vase-
painting is a copy, or at all events a reminiscence, of the mural
painting ? The range of subjects is certainly the same: Micon
painted the return of the Argonauts, and such subjects from
the exploits of early heroes were common to fresco painters and
vase-painters. Many archaeologists have from time to time
not unnaturally attempted to find on vases scenes and groups
repeated from some of the great fresco-paintings of Athens
and elsewhere. Dr. Kliigmann, for example, in his excellent