The format of vase painting is well-suited for a single continuous zone of active figures. Two examples of expressive power achieved within narrow compositional restraints are the Keophrades and Brygos Painters' versions of the Sack of Troy. Both make use of a frieze of interlocking figures on a single ground line to describe the height of battle. Polygnotos depicts the aftermath of the battle rather than its climax. When the ground plane is varied and figures are placed throughout the field, the action is dispersed and less vigorous and dramatic.
Many figures are still, standing and sitting in groups.
In reconstructing the painting, I have placed figures on various levels, and left only a little indication of the ground, which is meant loosely to suggest pictorial space. I've included rocks and trees which apear also on vases as indications of setting. Polygnotos worked in the 460s, contemporary with several vase painters whose work I have particularily drawn upon. The Achilles , Phiale , Penelope Painters are important in the Classical period, as well as the vase painter Polygnotos , who takes his name from the wall painter, and followed in the steps of the Niobid painter. There is also a group of individual painters called by Beazley the Polygnotos Group .