Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/178

150 of architecture and made of Pentelic marble, known as the choragic monument of Lysicrates. Other streets and colonnades were adorned with Herman, square blocks or posts of marble, of which the upper part represented the head and bust of the god Hermes, or of Dionysius, or often two heads looking opposite ways. The art of painting contributed much in this period to beautifying the city. The chief artist who at this time was employed on public work at Athens—generally under the direction and patronage of Cimon—was Polygnotus of Thasos. Paintings of his in Athens—besides many in other places—are mentioned in the Stoa poikile, where many episodes in Athenian history were represented, ending with a vivid presentment of the battle of Marathon—in the Theseium, the Propylaea, the temple of the Dioscuri, and elsewhere. Parts of the same paintings were by his pupil, Mikon. We, of course, have not the same means of judging of the painter's art as we have of that of the sculptors and builders of this age, but it seems that the characteristic feature of both branches of art was increased power of representing the human form naturally and gracefully, whether in repose or movement, free from the conventionality and stiffness of more archaic art. The difficulty of representing attitudes, dress, hair, and eyes had been overcome. Groupings of men and horses in procession or contest were produced, and created a vivid illusion of life and movement. Though Athens excelled other Greek states in the number and splendour of these treasures of art, the artistic progress was by no means confined to her.