Polygnotus

Greek painter

• Born: c. 500 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Thasos, Thrace, Greece
• Died: c. 440 b.c.e.?
• Place of death: Thasos or Athens, Greece

Polygnotus was the first great Greek painter. His murals at Delphi and in Athens established his reputation as the preeminent painter of the fifth century b.c.e. and probably the most famous in antiquity.

Early Life

Little is known about the early life of Polygnotus (pahl-ihg-NOH-tuhs). He was born on the Greek island of Thasos, near Thrace, and was the son and pupil of the prominent painter Aglaophon. His brother Aristophon was also an artist; a later painter named Aglaophon may have been his son or nephew. Polygnotus’s family appears to have been politically active, and he may have been related to the famous seventh century poet Archilochus, whose family had colonized Thasos.

Polygnotus was already being employed as a painter, and probably also as a sculptor, for major projects on the Greek mainland during the first quarter of the fifth century. He eventually made his way to Athens, where he spent much of his life, and became the first known artistic adviser to an Athenian politician—Cimon, whom he recognized as his patron. Cimon was the dominant political figure in Athens from the late 470’s to 461, and it was undoubtedly through his influence that Polygnotus became an Athenian citizen, a rare honor. Cimon’s free-spirited sister, Elpinice, was Polygnotus’s lover and model.

Polygnotus may have been persuaded to enter Cimon’s service when the latter conquered Thasos, which had revolted from Athens and the Delian League in 465, but it is more likely that the association had begun in the previous decade. There is plausible evidence to suggest that Polygnotus helped decorate the Theseum in Athens, the shrine for the bones of the hero Theseus, which Cimon had discovered and returned to the city in the mid-470’s. The relationship could have begun as early as 479, when Polygnotus was painting in a shrine commemorating the Battle of Marathon, in which Cimon’s father, Miltiades the Younger, had been the hero.

Life’s Work

The destruction of Athens in 479 during the Second Persian War left the city in ruins; the necessity of rebuilding and beautifying the city provided an opportunity for artists such as Polygnotus. Polygnotus’s friend Cimon was responsible for an extensive building program, and the artist was actively employed in decorating Cimon’s structures. The most significant of these was the Stoa Poecile (painted stoa), which was funded by Cimon’s brother-in-law and probably completed by 460. Polygnotus (who may have been the artistic director for the building) and other prominent artists created a “Cimonian” picture gallery in the Stoa Poecile, choosing mythological and historical themes that could call attention to Cimon’s family and his accomplishments. Like many ancient murals, these paintings were executed not directly on the walls but on wooden panels that were pinned to the walls with iron pegs.

Polygnotus was responsible for the Iliupersis, a mural depicting Troy fallen. The theme evoked memories of Cimon’s great victory at the Eurymedon River in Asia Minor in 469, where the Athenian general had inflicted so crushing a defeat on the Persians that, at the time, it seemed as final as the legendary Greek triumph over the Trojans. Polygnotus also used the opportunity to paint the face of Elpinice on Laodice, the most prominent Trojan woman in the mural, further indication that the mural honored Cimon.

Among other works in Athens attributed to Polygnotus was a depiction of the marriage of Castor and Pollux to the daughters of Leucippus, a painting that appeared in the sanctuary of the Dioscuri, another building associated with Cimon. In the Propylaea on the Acropolis, his murals of Achilles among the virgins on Scyros and Odysseus’s encounter with Nausicaa were displayed. What he painted in the Theseum cannot be determined.

Polygnotus’s greatest works were not in Athens but at Delphi, in the Cnidian Lesche (clubhouse), which had been dedicated to the god Apollo by the people of Cnidus, a Greek city in Asia Minor, soon after the Battle of the Eurymedon. In that structure, the artist painted what would become the most famous murals of antiquity—the Iliupersis (Troy Fallen), a much larger and earlier version of the painting with the same name in Athens, and the Nekyia, or Odysseus’s Visit to the Underworld.

The paintings were gigantic by contemporary standards and covered the interior walls of the clubhouse, which measured 55 feet (17 meters) long and 25 feet (7.5 meters) wide. Their dozens of mythological figures, which were arranged on at least three different levels on a surface perhaps 15 feet (4.5 meters) tall, were almost life-sized, and the themes of the murals, like the themes of most of Polygnotus’s paintings in Athens, related directly to Cimon—in this case, his victory at the Eurymedon. The Cnidians, devotees of Apollo, had themselves participated in the battle. They had been among the forces led by Cimon, whose fleet had departed for the final engagement from their harbors and whose triumph at Eurymedon guaranteed their freedom from further Persian domination. Nothing would have been more appropriate for them than to celebrate the victory by making an offering of thanks to Apollo at Delphi and commissioning paintings whose symbolism would reflect favorably on the god’s agent at the battle—Cimon.

The fact that Polygnotus, Cimon’s close friend and client, was chosen to execute the paintings in the Cnidians’ clubhouse is further evidence of the political intent of the paintings—although, politics aside, the artistic merits of the two great murals were so impressive that the artist was voted free food and lodging for life by the Amphictionic Council (the “common council” of Greece). As Athens was a member of that council, the patriotic tradition that Polygnotus painted in the city without fee becomes understandable. He had no reason to charge, because Athens was already contributing to his upkeep, and, certainly, Cimon saw to it that his material needs were met.

Polygnotus’s later life is largely a subject of conjecture. When Cimon was ostracized from Athens in 461, there is no reason to believe that the artist was adversely affected or forced to leave. He was, after all, an Athenian citizen. He may have continued to work on the Stoa Poecile; it is known that other artists who had worked on Cimonian projects or were close to Cimon were able to remain in Athens. One was the great sculptor Phidias, who became the intimate friend of Pericles, the man who had helped engineer Cimon’s exile and became the single dominant politician in Athens after him. The Polygnotean paintings displayed in the Propylaea, built by Pericles in the 430’s, may be indication that the artist stayed, though it is not known whether these murals were actually painted while Pericles was in power or were earlier works collected from other places and deposited there. When and where Polygnotus died is uncertain. He held political office on Thasos sometime after 450, as did his brother Polydorus, but whether he remained there for the rest of his life cannot be determined.

Significance

Polygnotus was the first great Greek painter. A friend and client of the powerful Athenian politician Cimon, he painted murals in Athens that reflected favorably on his patron. His Iliupersis and Nekyia at Delphi were the two most famous paintings of antiquity, and their mythological themes celebrated Cimon’s crushing victory over the Persians at the Eurymedon River in 469.

Polygnotus represented a break from the conventions of earlier times, freeing painting from its archaic stiffness. He did not confine his figures to a single ground line but arranged them on several levels, scattering them about at various points in space and adding landscape elements such as rocks and trees to give an additional feeling of depth.

Among other innovations attributed to him were painting women in transparent drapery, representing their heads in multicolored headdresses, depicting the mouth open and teeth showing, and more natural treatment of the face. There was an emotional quality to his work, with figures or groups of figures reacting to events. Aristotle, at least, came close to assigning Polygnotus a didactic intent, saying that he represented men as better or more virtuous than they were and was concerned with portraying good character. Later critics maintained his greatness but considered him almost a primitive, citing his simplicity of color and lack of shading. The assertion by Cicero that Polygnotus painted in only four colors is probably erroneous. He is said to have been among the first to paint with yellow ochre.

During the early years of the Roman Empire, Quintilian averred that any serious survey of art must begin with Polygnotus, and his work was considered meritorious enough over the centuries to justify frequent restorations. Pausanias the Traveler, who provides the most complete account of Polygnotus’s paintings, was still impressed by them in the second century c.e., about six hundred years after they were painted. Some of Pausanius’s descriptions are corroborated in the surviving work of ancient potters, who borrowed Polygnotus’s themes, figure groupings, and figure poses and applied them to their own work.

Bibliography

Barron, J. P. “New Light on Old Walls: The Murals of the Theseion.” Journal of Roman Studies 92 (1972): 20-45. A detailed discussion of the murals in the Theseum in Athens, attempting to reconstruct their content and identify who painted them. A full discussion of Polygnotus’s role in the decoration of this building.

Boardman, John. Greek Art. Rev. ed. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996. Regarded as a standard work in the field of classical art, this book provides an overview of the masterpieces of ancient Greece as well as commentary on recent discoveries and controversies of interpretation surrounding the world’s best-known works of art and architecture.

Jeffery, L. H. “The Battle of Oinoe in the Stoa Poikile: A Problem in Greek Art and History.” Annual of the British School at Athens 60 (1965): 41-57. A discussion of the paintings in the Stoa Poecile, including Polygnotus’s Iliupersis.

Kebric, Robert B. The Paintings in the Cnidian Lesche at Delphi and Their Historical Context. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1983. This study is a complete analysis of the political content of Polygnotus’s major paintings and his relationship with Cimon. The major historical and chronological questions surrounding the paintings at Delphi, in particular, are discussed fully. Includes extensive bibliography.

Meiggs, R. The Athenian Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. Thorough study of the Athenian Empire provides a detailed analysis of the period of Polygnotus’s activity and of Cimonian Athens. Polygnotus himself is given a three-page treatment.

Pollitt, J. J. The Art of Greece, 1400 b.c.e.-31 b.c.e. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. An accessible sourcebook that contains relevant passages from ancient writers about Polygnotus and his work.

Pomeroy, Sarah B., Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. This volume, beginning with early Greece and the Bronze Age, provides good background in Greek culture; the section on the growth of Athens discusses Polygnotus’s style.

Robertson, Martin. A History of Greek Art. 2 vols. London: Cambridge University Press, 1976. This survey of ancient Greek art contains an excellent introduction to Polygnotus’s art and paintings.