history of Greek painting we have to rely upon
the words of Aristotle, Plutarch, Pliny, Quintilian, Lucian, Cicero,
Pausanias. Their accounts appear to be partly substantiated by the
vase paintings, and such few slabs and Roman frescos as remain to us.
There is no consecutive narrative. The story of painting originating
from a girl seeing the wall-silhouette of her lover and filling it in
with color, and the conjecture of painting having developed from
embroidery work, have neither of them a foundation in fact. The
earliest settlers of Greece probably learned painting from the
Phoenicians, and employed it, after the Egyptian, Assyrian, and
Phoenician manner, on pottery, terra-cotta slabs, and rude
sculpture. It developed slower than sculpture perhaps; but were there
anything of importance left to judge from, we should probably find
that it developed in much the same manner as sculpture. Down to 500
B.C. there was little more than outline filled in with flat
monochromatic paint and with a decorative effect similar, perhaps, to
that of the vase paintings. After that date come the more important
names of artists mentioned by the ancient writers. It is difficult to
assign these artists to certain periods or schools, owing to the
insufficient knowledge we have about them. The following
classifications and assignments may, therefore, in some instances, be
questioned.

[Illustration: FIG. 12.--MUSE OF CORTONA, CORTONA MUSEUM.]

OLDER ATTIC SCHOOL: The first painter of rank was Polygnotus (fl.
475-455 B.C.), sometimes called the founder of Greek painting, because
perhaps he was one of the first important painters in Greece proper.
He seems to have been a good outline draughtsman, producing figures in
profile, with little attempt at relief, perspective, or
light-and-shade. His colors were local tones, but probably more like
nature and more varied than anything in Egyptian painting. Landscapes,
buildings, and the like, were given in a symbolic manner. Portraiture
was a generalization, and in figure compositions the names of the
principal characters were written near them for purposes of
identification. The most important works of Polygnotus were the wall
paintings for the Assembly Room of the Knidians at Delphi. The
subjects related to the Trojan War and the adventures of Ulysses.

Opposed to this flat, unrelieved style was the work of a follower,
Agatharchos of Samos (fl. end of fifth century B.C.). He was a
scene-painter, a