913 



POLYCRATES. 



POLYGNOTUS. 



914 



celebrated for others of a less ambitious character. Amongst these 

 were two statues of young men, one, called ' Diadumenos,' fastening a 

 band round his head, which was treated in a soft or delicate manner, 

 ' molliter ;' the other, ' Doryphorus,' of a more manly character, 

 1 viriliter,' carrying a lance. A group of two naked boys called 

 ' Astragalizontes,' playing at a game called Tali (with bones), is also 

 celebrated ; also some statues of Canephorse (female figures carrying 

 baskets on their heads), an Amazon, as well as several statues of 

 Athletes (conquerors in the public games), and others. The Canephorse 

 were so much admired, that Cicero declares ('In Verr.,' iv.) that 

 strangers at Meesene crowded to see them ; " and the house in which 

 they were preserved was less its master's than the ornament or 

 attraction of the whole city." The estimation in which another of his 

 works, the Diadumenos, was held, may be conceived from the state- 

 ment of Pliny, that it was " centum talentis nobilitatum," valued at 

 one hundred talents. But of all the productions of thia great master 

 none baa a greater claim *o notice than that which for its excellence 

 was called the Canon, or rule of art. This waa a statue so perfect in 

 ito proportions that artists referred to it, and were bound by it as by a 

 kind of law. " Liueamenta artis," says Pliny (xxxiv. 8), " ex eo 

 petentes, velut a lege quadam." Some have supposed that this figure 

 was the Doryphorus ; and the reason for this belief and it is not 

 without its force is derived from a story recorded of the celebrated 

 Lysippus, who, being asked from what master he had learned his art, 

 replied, " the Dory phorus of Polycletus;" but this is rendered doubtful 

 by the passage in. which Pliny speaks of the Canon. It may fairly be 

 questioned how far any single or particular work can properly be a 

 canon of art a, rule by which works of different qualities and characters 

 can be successfully executed ; and it seems much more probable that 

 the Canon of Polycletus, whether or not it was the Doryphorus, was 

 only a standard of excellence for works of its own particular character. 

 We think this is the interpretation that must be given to it by all 

 practical artists. 



It is the highest praise to Polycletus to say he was a worthy com- 

 petitor and rival of Phidias. On one occasion, when five of the most 

 eminent artists of the day, Phidias being of the number, executed five 

 statues in competition, that of Polycletus was preferred. It is also 

 said that he carried to perfection the Toreutic art, which Phidias had, 

 M it were, commenced. Polycletus ia declared by Pliny to have suc- 

 ceeded only (or perhaps it should be read best) in statues of a soft or 

 gentle character. He also eaya that he first made figures resting on 

 one leg. On the authority of Varro he also acquaints us that he 

 preserved a certain squareness in some of his worka, and that they 

 were all made according to one model, or ' exemplar." With reapect 

 to the former part of this charge, that of squareness (' quadrata '), it 

 ia likely that the style which characterised art immediately before 

 what has been termed the Phidian period, may still have been partially 

 continued, and, as Polycletus was one of the scholars of the hard and 

 dry school, it is natural that some of his works may have shown 

 evidence of the age of Ageladas, though he had much improved upon 

 the character of the earlier art. Myron and Polycletus were always 

 considered rivals. Pliny says, "semulatio etiam in materia fuit;" for 

 one used the bronze of *Egina and the other always employed that of 

 Delos for their works. The judgment of antiquity has given to 

 Polycletus the reputation of one of the most remarkable artists of his 

 extraordinary age. Our notice of him has necessarily been much 

 compressed, but a fair estimate of the honour in which he was held as 

 a great master of his art may be made not only from the recorded 

 opinions of writers, but from the statement that among his scholars 

 were Pericletus, Canachus (the second), Asopodorus, Alexis, Aristides, 

 Phryno, Dino, Athenodorus, and Demeas. (Pliny, ' Hist. Nat.,' xxxiv. 

 8.) Unfortunately no work known to be the production of Polycletua 

 exists by which the moderns can judge of the merit of this artist. 



lu addition to hia fame as a statuary, Polycletus has that of an able 

 architect One of the monuments of his skill in this art was a marble 

 building erected at Epidaurus, called the Tholus. Another was a 

 theatre, erected within the precincts of the temple of .(Esculapius, also 

 at Epidaurua. It was considered, according to Pauaanias, superior, for 

 its symmetry and beauty, to any theatre extant. 



The second POLYCLETUS (Argivus) waa the brother and scholar of 

 Naucydee. It ia thought likely that this artist waa the author of two 

 celebrated statues described by Pausanias, namely, the Jupiter Philius, 

 erected at Megalopolis, and the Jupiter Milichius, a marble statue at 

 Argos (Paus., lib. viii. 31, and ii. 20) ; as well as of some bronze tripods 

 dedicated at Amyclse. For further particulars respecting Polycletus, 

 and works produced by artists so called, the reader is referred to 

 Pliny (' Hist Nat.'), Pausanias, Junius, and Silly (' Catal. Artificum '), 

 Ein. David, and other writers on ancient art. 



An ancient Greek epigram alludes to POLYCLETUS, a Thasian ; but 

 there is no account of him among the artists of antiquity. 



POLY'CRATES, tyrant of Samoa, obtained the government of that 

 island by stratagem, towards the end of the reign of Cyrus. His first 

 care waa to protect the commerce of Samoa and increase its maritime 

 power. Having by degrees made hU fleet the most powerful that had 

 perbapn ever sailed on the .'Kgean, he extended hia sway over the 

 neighbouring states of Lcabos, Miletus, &c. He seems to have 

 designed to make Samoa the mistress of the Archipelago, and to have 

 neglected nothing that could enhance her greatness, either by the 



BIOO. BIT. VOL. IV. 



skilful conduct of wars and foreign policy, or the cultivation of the 

 arts of civilisation. He surrounded himself with every princely 

 luxury ; but at the same time by attracting to his court, by ample 

 rewards, the best artists from other parts of Greece, he stimulated the 

 arts for which Samos was renowned ; and he sought to confer sub- 

 stantial benefits on the country, by the construction of great and 

 useful public works among which were an aqueduct, and a mole in 

 the harbour of Samos of which Herodotus speaks as one of the 

 wonders of Greece and by the importation of superior breeds of 

 cattle from other countries. According to Herodotus, he formed au 

 alliance with Amasis, king of Egypt, but the Egyptian monarch, dread- 

 ing lest the constant good fortune of his ally should excite the envy 

 of the gods, advised him to cast away the possession he moat valued. 

 Polycrates accordingly throw into the sea his signet seal, the work of 

 Theodoras, but in a few days it was found in the body of a fiah, 

 which had been brought to the palace ; whereupon Amasis broke off 

 the alliance. This story however, Mr. Grote thinks, with other 

 circumstances related by Herodotus, leads to the conclusion that the 

 alliance was rather broken off by Polycrates himself, with a view to 

 secure the friendship of the Persians. Polycrates having quarrelled 

 with the Corinthians, the latter applied to Sparta for assistance, which 

 was the more readily afforded, as some of the leading Samians whom 

 Polycrates had banished had already been seeking Spartan interposi- 

 tion. The united forces besieged Samos for the space of forty days, 

 but were then compelled to abandon the undertaking in despair. 

 Polycrates was now more powerful than ever, but his career was 

 suddenly brought to an unhappy termination. Oroetes, the satrap of 

 Sardis, as ia supposed by the instigation of the Persian king, Cainbyses, 

 whose jealousy was provoked by the growing power of Polycratea, 

 contrived to allure him by a treacherous message to visit Sardis, but 

 as soon as Polycrates arrived at Magnesia on the Meander, he was by 

 order of Oroetes seized and hung upon a cross B.C. 522. Herodotua 

 (iii. ] 25) says of Polycrates, that he perished in a manner unworthy of 

 himself and of his high designs, and that none of the Greek tyrants, 

 with the exception of those of Syracuse, were to be compared with 

 him in greatness of character. 



POLYDORE VERGIL. [VEBOIL.] 



POLYGNOTUS, one of the most celebrated of the ancient painters. 

 He was a native of Thasos : son and pupil of Aglaophon, a painter of 

 that island. Pliny merely says that Polygnotus lived before the 90th 

 Olympiad (xxxv. 9) ; but from Plutarch's account of his friendship for 

 Cimou and love for Cimon's sister Elpinice (Plut., ' Cim.,' c. iv.), it 

 would seem probable that he flourished at Athens at least as early as 

 the 80th Olympiad (B.C. 460). Thasos was reduced by the Athenians, 

 after a war of three years, in B.C. 463, and it is likely enough that 

 Polygnotus then left his native country, and accompanied its con- 

 queror Cimou on his return to Athens. A story told by Plutarch 

 (' Cirn.,' c. xiv.) would represent Elpinice as no longer young in the 

 year 463 : if so, it is not probable that she would have retained 

 sufficient beauty, at a later period, to be introduced by the artist into 

 his painting in the Pcecile. Polygnotus obtained the rights of citizen- 

 hip at Athena : how long he continued to paint we have no means of 

 knowing. Pliny describes him as " the first who painted women with 

 transparent drapery, and covered their heads with variegated caps. 

 He first began to open the mouth, and show the teeth of his figures, 

 and to give them an expression of countenance different from the 

 ancient stiffness." (Pliny, xxxv. 9.) Polygnotus and Micon were the 

 first artiats who employed the ' ail," or yellow colour found in the Attic 

 silver mines. (1'liu., xxxiii. 13.) The same paiuters used a black or 

 blue colour prepared from grape husks (' tryginon '). (Pliu. xxxv. 6.) 

 Some of the works of Polygnotus were executed in the encaustic 

 method. (Plin., xxxv. 11.) Cicero (' Brutus,' xviii.) mentions him as 

 one of the masters who used the four old colours. Aristotle (' Polit.,' 

 viii. 5.) calls him ^fli/c<!s, one who conveyed a notion of moral qualities 

 and of character of his works, and in the ' Poetics ' (15) he contrasts 

 this ethic character of Polygnotus with the absence of such a quality 

 in Zeuxis ; in cap. 4 he says that Polygnotus made his figures superior, 

 Pauson inferior, and Dionysius similar, to nature. It would follow 

 from all this that Polygnotus held an analogus place in the history of 

 ancient art to that occupied by some of the early Florentine masters 

 in modern painting. Perhaps Fra Angelico or Masaccio would be a 

 fair parallel ; always bearing in mind that painting among the ancients 

 was essentially statuesque in its character, and therefore, at an 

 equivalent stage of development, the drawing of the figure would be 

 much further advanced than in Italian art. 



The principal works of Polygnotus enumerated by the ancients are 

 1. The pictures in the Lesche at Delphi, of which Pausanias (x. 25) 

 has left an elaborate description. The subjects were the Capture of 

 Troy, the Return of the Greeks, and the vtnvlo, or Visit of Ulysses to 

 the Shades. It would seem, from the account of Paueauias, that 

 names were attached to most of the figures, as we see them often 

 inscribed on the vasea. The variety of age and sex portrayed, and the 

 feelings of some of the personages, imply a discrimination of character 

 and a power of expression, such as we should expect from the reputa- 

 tion of the artist. Thus Hector was represented seated, clasping with 

 iis hands his left knee, and with an expression of deep melancholy. 

 Penthesilea appeared to contemplate Paris with contempt and scorn 

 x. 31). Lucian ' luag.,' 7) mentions the figure of Cassandra, as 



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