Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/101

 SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF PHOENICIAN SCULPTURE. 79 hair falls in long curls divided in front and brought together at the neck. In one hand they hold a dove against their bosom, with the other they support the skirts of their drapery, a pose reserved for young and beautiful divinities in early Greek art, and especially for Aphrodite. One of these figures, the one, in fact, we have repro- duced, has an opening at the top, which, with its hollow inside and closed base, makes it a true alabastron. We have made up these series by the help of the statuettes found in northern Phoenicia ; we could not hope to find their elements at Tyre or Sidon. It is a curious thing that no terra-cotta figurines to speak of were obtained from all the excavations of M. Renan. The only things of the kind he found were heads, torsos, hands and feet, and small fragments which could not be joined together. Only one statuette could be restored in any considerable degree, and that was without arms. 1 How is the difference to be explained ? Is it due merely to the fact that antiquity as a whole is better pre- served in the Arvadite district than in those parts in which the population has never ceased to be dense and has always lived at the expense of the past ? or perhaps the art of modelling in clay was less cultivated at Tyre and Sidon than in the northern kingdom. These two cities were much nearer Egypt, where glazed earthen- ware was always more popular than terra-cotta. Sidon imported glass-making from Egypt, and enamel is nothing more than a layer of coloured glass, it is therefore possible that the artisans of the two greatest Phoenician cities confined themselves more or less to the production of statuettes covered with a white, green, or blue glaze, after the Egyptian fashion. In the north they were within easier reach both of Assyria and Rhodes, and the latter was one of the first places from which original ceramic works were turned out by Grecian artists. However this may have been, the terra- cottas of Tyre and Sidon appear to have been far ruder than those of northern Phoenicia at least as late as the century of Alexander. In the fragments by which alone they are now represented careful study has revealed the influence both of Egypt and Greece. Nothing clearly Assyrian in origin has yet been discovered, but any day may supply the want. 2 So far we have managed to divide the life of Phoenician art into o three phases, into three successive movements, but as yet we have 1 HEUZEY, Catalogue, No. 227 and plate xii. fig. 3. - Ibid. p. 94.