Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/349

 In Greece. 319 process known as encaustic not having been in use until the golden age of Greek art. The earliest artist of whom we are able to give any detailed account is Polygnotus (living at Athens about 450 b.c), whose principal paintings were in the celebrated portico at Athens called the Pcecile, and the Lesche, or council chamber, of the temple of Apollo at Delphi. In the former he represented the Greek princes assembled in council after the taking of Troy, and in the latter a series of scenes from the wars of Troy, and the visit of Ulysses to Hades. Ancient writers agree in ascribing to Polygnotus great command of colouring, and power of depicting mul- titudes in a spirited and lifelike manner ; but he does not seem to have attempted any but profile figures, or to have painted shadows in anything but a purely rudimentary manner ; and in the paintings at Delphi the figures were apparently arranged in zones and groups one above another, with no assistance from either linear or aerial perspective. The next great name connected with Greek painting is that of Apollodorus of Athens, who flourished towards the close of the fifth century b.c, and was the first to combine correctness of drawing with a right distribution of CD O light and shade. Certain of his predecessors — Dionysius of Colophon, for example — attained to some excellence in this respect, but Apollodorus was the first who thoroughly mastered the gradations alike of tints and shadows. He was, however, eclipsed by his pupil Zeuxis of Heracleia,* bearing this name was his birth-place, although it was most probably the Pontic Heracleia on the Black Sea.
 * It has never been definitely decided which of the several towns