DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0230
210
PRINCIPLES OF GREEK ART
CHAP. XII
the painter, whose art was naturally freer, and less closely lim-
ited by the influence of the school. Cimon of Cleonae may be
regarded as having put the last hand to archaic art, which has,
even in modern days, great fascination; Polygnotus certainly
acted as a forerunner of the great school of Pheidias; Parrhasius
and Zeuxis introduced the pathetic tendency which passed on to
Praxiteles. The painting of the Hellenistic age, to judge from
Pompeii, must have in variety and expressiveness greatly
surpassed the sculpture of that age. It is however remarkable
that in portraiture the sculpture of later Greece excels beyond
all comparison the superficial and vulgar works, mostly from
Egyptian sarcophagi, which are almost all we possess in the
way of painted Greek portraits. On the other hand, some
of the little sketches of Pompeii show a lightness of hand and
boldness which are impossible to workers in the heavy materials
of clay and marble.
The most important of the recent additions to our know-
ledge of ancient painting come from excavations at Pagasae
in Thessaly, where there have been rescued a large number of
painted sepulchral slabs, which had been built into the walls
of buildings.1 These retain much of their original colouring.
They belong to the Hellenistic age. At present few of them
have been published, and those imperfectly. It is however
clear that they are the work of very poor artists: they are
as far below the level of contemporary sculpture as are the por-
traits from Egypt.
1 Arbanitopoullos, 9f<r<ra\iKa fiv-rjfj.e'ia, 1909; also the Ephemeris Archaiolog-
ike for 1908.
PRINCIPLES OF GREEK ART
CHAP. XII
the painter, whose art was naturally freer, and less closely lim-
ited by the influence of the school. Cimon of Cleonae may be
regarded as having put the last hand to archaic art, which has,
even in modern days, great fascination; Polygnotus certainly
acted as a forerunner of the great school of Pheidias; Parrhasius
and Zeuxis introduced the pathetic tendency which passed on to
Praxiteles. The painting of the Hellenistic age, to judge from
Pompeii, must have in variety and expressiveness greatly
surpassed the sculpture of that age. It is however remarkable
that in portraiture the sculpture of later Greece excels beyond
all comparison the superficial and vulgar works, mostly from
Egyptian sarcophagi, which are almost all we possess in the
way of painted Greek portraits. On the other hand, some
of the little sketches of Pompeii show a lightness of hand and
boldness which are impossible to workers in the heavy materials
of clay and marble.
The most important of the recent additions to our know-
ledge of ancient painting come from excavations at Pagasae
in Thessaly, where there have been rescued a large number of
painted sepulchral slabs, which had been built into the walls
of buildings.1 These retain much of their original colouring.
They belong to the Hellenistic age. At present few of them
have been published, and those imperfectly. It is however
clear that they are the work of very poor artists: they are
as far below the level of contemporary sculpture as are the por-
traits from Egypt.
1 Arbanitopoullos, 9f<r<ra\iKa fiv-rjfj.e'ia, 1909; also the Ephemeris Archaiolog-
ike for 1908.