Polygnotus

, a celebrated painter of Thasos, flourished about 422 B. C. and was the son and scholar of Aglaophon. He particularly distinguished himself by a series of pictures, including the principal events of the Trojan war. He refused the presents offered him by the Grecians on this occasion which so pleased the Amphictyons, who composed the general council of Greece, that they thanked him by a solemn decree; and it was provided by the same decree, that this skilful painter should be lodged and entertained, at the public expence, in every town through | which he passed. The talents of Polygnotus are celebrated by many of the best authors of antiquity, as Aristotle and Plutarch, Dionysius Halicarnassensis, Pausanias, but especially Pliny, whose sentiments, as well as those of Pausanias, are criticised by Mr. Fuseli in his Lectures on Painting." ¹