The Lesche of the Knidians: Medium and Color

Alexander Mosaic, House of the Faun, Pompeii Detail of Alexander

Color

Polygnotos used a four color system of red, black, white and yellow ochre and a combination of these colors allowed for a range of colors. An excellent example of this system can be seen in the famous Alexander Mosaic from Pompeii. Although known as a "Four Color" painter, Polygnotos' palette was rich and he was able to make green by mixing blue-black with yellow and the blue color was made by mixing grape-black with white. The grape black was made from wine leaves and gave the painting, like the Alexander Mosaic, a sober character.

Material: Wooden Panels or Fresco Technique

During the excavation, fragments of blue, black and red plaster were found attached to or fallen from the lower courses of the building, but the plaster evidence has not led scholars to believe that the paintings by Polygnotos were executed al fresco. The fresco technique, painting with pigments on wet plaster, was in practice during the bronze-age as well as in Hellenistic and Roman periods. The evidence that Polygnotos painted on something other than plaster is both archaeological and literary. The paintings in the Stoa Poikile, also painted by Polygnotos, were most likely executed on wooden panels. (Robertson 1975: 245) Synesius, a fifth century A.D. bishop, wrote about the removal of the panels of the Stoa Poikile. Wall blocks with drill holes containing iron pins were found in the excavation of the Stoa. Robertson believes that this could be a system for hanging wooden panels and a similar block with a drill hole was unearthed in the Lesche. The plaster evidence is, according to Robertson, not indicative of an original painting by Polygnotos and could therefore, be part of the plaster flooring or dado.

The theory of Polygnotos' wooden panels from the Stoa Poikile rests on the account by Synesius. The Bishop's authority has been questioned by some scholars as he was speaking from hearsay and may have drawn a conclusion about the material of the paintings, based on the style commonly used in the fifth century A.D., namely panel painting. (Swindler 1929: 216)

Terra Cotta Fragment from Roof of Lesche

Fresco Technique

Painting on plaster was practiced in the fifth century B.C. on both the inside and exterior of Greek temples. By the time Pausanias saw the paintings of the Lesche, they were already between four and five hundred years old. In the fourth century A. D. , the paintings were mentioned with admiration by the rhetorician Themistius. According to Swindler, "The mere fact that the famous paintings of Polygnotos at Delphi and Athens survived so long was doubtless due to the fact that they were painted on walls and could not be carried away." (Swindler 1929: 217) It is more likely that the paintings were made using the more permanent technique of fresco.