few and far between, but we might learn much by the careful study of the
mural paintings from the buried Campanian cities, Pompeii, Herculaneum,
and those found in the tombs near Rome and Etruria. The paintings on
Greek vases would enable us to trace the history of what is called
ceramographic art from B.C. 600 for nearly five centuries onward.

After noticing the traditions preserved by Pliny and others as to the
earliest painters, the lecturer passed on to the period after the
Persian war. Polygnotos of Thasos was the earliest Greek painter of
celebrity. He flourished B.C. 480-460. At Athens he decorated with
paintings the portico called the Stoa Poikile, the Temple of the
Dioscuri, the Temple of Theseus, and the Pinakotheke on the Akropolis.
At Delphi he painted on the walls of the building called Lesche two
celebrated pictures, the taking of Troy and the descent of Ulysses into
Hades. All these were mural paintings; the subjects were partly
mythical, partly historical. Thus in the Stoa Poikile were represented
the taking of Troy, the battle of Theseus with the Amazons, the battle
of Marathon. In the Temple of Theseus came the battle of the Lapiths and
Centaurs and the battle of the Amazons again. In the other two Athenian
temples he treated mythological subjects. These great public works were
executed during the administration of Kimon, to whom Polygnotos stood in
the same relation us Phidias did to Perikles, the successor of Kimon.
The paintings in the Stoa Poikile were executed by Polygnotos
gratuitously, for which service the Athenians rewarded him with the
freedom of their city. His greatest and probably his earliest works were
the two pictures in the Lesche at Delphi. Of these there was a very full
description in Pausanias. The building called Lesche was thought to have
been of elliptical form, with a colonnade on either side, separated by a
wall in the middle, and to have been about 90 ft in length. The figures
were probably life size.