Susan B. Matheson has written the first detailed analysis of Polygnotos, a major vase painter of classical Athens whose workshop flourished for fifty years, from the golden age of Pericles to the end of the fifth century. Inspired by the monumental art of Pheidias and other sculptors who defined fifth-century classical style, Polygnotos and his workshop reflected this style as it emerged from the sculptures of the Parthenon.

Matheson provides the first comprehensive chronology for Polygnotos's own works, and then analyzes the distinctive, evolving Polygnotan style first isolated by Sir John Beazley, comparing this style to that of contemporary Athenian workshops and demonstrating its seminal influence on the later vase painting of southern Italy.

She then surveys Polygnotan iconography to show its relation to contemporary vase painting and sculpture, emphasizing both its originality and its continuity with Athenian iconographic traditions.