Painting in Grecce.—The origin of painting, like that of most of the arts, was involved by the ancient Greeks in their legendary history. There can be little doubt that Painting like Sculpture was derived by the Greeks from Egypt. In their traditions respecting the inventors of drawing and colouring they may however have preserved some memorials of those who assisted in raising the art from its primitive rudeness and narrowness of scope. Homer, though he mentlons garments elaborately embroidered or woven with figures, speaks of nothing nearer akin to painting than the colouring of the ships or the staining of ivory by a Quinn woman. The origin of the art in its simplest form of the outline of a shadow, is ascribed to Corinth or Sicyon; but the story of its supposed inventor, as recorded by I'liuy, is evidently deserving of little attention. Cleanthea of Corinth is said to have made the first outline ; Ardices, of the same city, and Tele phanes of Sicyon, to have introduced some lines within the figure ; and Cleophautus to have coloured it with a single colour, and thus produced monochromata. Corinth was the great centre of the ceramic art, and these frequent references to Corinthian painters point with sufficient distinctness to the early connection between the potter's art and painting. The legend of Cleophantus, or Eucheir and Eugram mus, having accompanied Demaratus from Corinth to Italy (Olymp. 30, ac. 657), probably points to the early connection of Greek and Italian art, or to the taste for the former which existed in Etruria and the neighbouring countries, as is sufficiently attested by the innu merable vases with Greek stories and Greek inscriptions now found in Italy. The grotesqueness and clumsiness of the figures on the earlier vases, and their progressive improvement, show how little ground there is for the notion that the proportions of the human figure in early Greek art were fixed by some type derived from Egypt or else where, instead of gradually developing themselves as the culture of the race advanced The very curious paintings on the walls of the Etruscan tombs should here be mentioned ; and Pliny speaks of ancient works existing in his time in a temple at Ardea, as well as at Caere and Lanuvium.
Between the 50th and 80th Olympiad (from 580 to 460 B.c.) painting advanced considerably in Greece.
Historical pictures of very early events are recorded, one indeed by Bularchus, in the reign of Candaulea, who died OL 16. 1, B.c. 716. Cimon of Cleo= invented catagrapha, that is, figures seen obliquely from above or below, and thus applied the rules of perspective. The peculiarities of drawing of this early period are beat learned from the study of the ancient vases ; the forms and protuberance of the muscles are exaggerated, and the positions strained and whimsical.
Po, 6notus of Thasos, who probably settled at Athens about OL 79. 2 (B.c. 463), was the first painter of great excellence, and the founder of what may be c•illed the Athenian school. Aristotle e Poet.; vi. calls him iryathis hOrrypilms, in his expression of character ; " and speaks of him as painting men better than they are. The characteristic of his style was elevation and largeness of design, with purity of form and furce of expression. Pliny speaks of him as having abandoned the old stiffness, and having given movement to the features. His transparent drapery is also mentioned. Pausanias (x., 25-31) describes his pictures in the Lesche at Delphi—the Capture of Troy, the Departure of the Greeks, and Descent of Ulysses to the Shades. In the Pcecile st Athens his works stood by the side of the
Battle of Marathon by Panamus, the nephew or brother of Phidias, and of the Combat between the Athenians and the Amazons by Micon. This latter artist, together with Onatas of ./Egina and Dionysius of Colophon, were the most celebrated contemporaries of Polygnotus.
The principles of light and shade were investigated by Apollodorus of Athens about the 94 01. (B.C. 404). To the school of Athens succeeded what may be termed that of Ionia, in which illusion seems to have been more aimed at. This we may infer from the well-known story of the grapes of Zeuxis and the linen cloth of Parrhasius. Zeuxis, with whom begins the second epoch of the more advanced art, was of Heraelea, and flourished about 01. 94. (n.e. 404). His excel lence seems to have been equally conspicuous in female beauty (as the Helen of Crotona), and the sublimity of Zeus and his attendant gods ; whilst in technical skill he surpassed all his predecessors.
Parrhasius was of Ephesus, and he is no less celebrated for the roundness and relief of his figures than for their exquisite form and expression. Ilia contemporary Timanthes overcame him in one of those contests between painters which were not unfrequent in Greece, and which are said to have been first instituted at Delphi in the time of Panamus. Among the ancient paintings from Pompeii is one of the same subject (the sacrifice of Iphigenia) as that of Timanthes, mentioned in Pliny, and in which the grief of the father is represented in the same way by the concealment of the face.
Another school arose at Sicyon, in which the most celebrated names were—Euphranor of Corinth (01. 101-110, B.C. 364-340), Pausias of Sicyon (01. 103, D.C. 36S), Aristeides of Thebes (OL 102-112, B.C. 372 332), and Pamphilius of Amphipolis (OL 97-107, B.C. 392-352). The first of these, a sculptor as well as a painter, was laborious and con sistently excellent in all that he undertook. Aristeides was remarkable for his expression of passion ; Pausias practised encaustic painting with great success, having acquired the art from Pamphilus. Pausias was noted for his children and lighter subjects, and first decorated roofs and arches with figures. Pamphilus succeeded in establishing a knowledge of the rudiments of drawing as part of a liberal education. Ile was moreover the teacher of Apelles, who united the softness and colouring of Ionia with the science of the Sicyonian school. His excellence in female beauty was attested by the Aphrodite Anadyomene at Cos; his power in sublime subjects and his technical skill, by the Alexander wielding the Thunder at Ephesus. The liberality of Apelles first brought into notice a rival of his fame, Protogenes of Rhodes, or rather of Caunus in Carla. This artist excelled in a laborious study of nature, and Apelles declared that his own superi ority over Protogenes consisted in his knowing when to leave off. They both executed numerous portraits, and Apelles was honoured with the exclusive privilege of painting Alexander the Great, Nicomachus probably preceded Apelles ; he seems to have rivalled Luca Giordano in quickness of execution. Nicias of Athens, Theon of Samos, and Melauthius were contemporaries of Alexander. The first of the three was excellent in light and shade, and painted battles and historical subjects on a large scale.