Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/192

 170 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. forms and the solidity of its framework, all that was implied in a god of strength. Before this giant from Amathus we are, as it were, assisting at the birth of a new type which was to be brought to gradual perfection by successive retouches. Were its chief features fur- nished by Bes or by Izdubar ? We have some hesitation on this point because we seem to recognize the influence of different models. The head-dress, the tattoo marks, the hairy limbs, the lion skin on the back, all these seem to be taken from Bes ; the large face surrounded by what looks more like a lion's mane than the hair of a man is common to both Izdubar and Bes ; but the treatment of the beard is Assyrian rather than Egypto-Phcenician. And as for the movement of the arms which hold up the lioness by her hind legs, it finds a prototype in a whole series of Asiatic monuments (Figs. 7, 8, 10, 19). The latest of the series shows a motive adopted by archaic Greek art, we mean the figure known to archaeologists as the Persian Artemis. Here the lion's skjn is not yet thrown over the head, but the time is near when that was to be recognized as the right, and by far the most effective, position. Cypriot collections contain a whole series of figures, mostly found at Athieno, in which the care lavished by the sculptors of the island on the type in question is clearly shown. They did not cling blindly to the nudity with which they had started ; seeing the character of their sculpture as a whole they were sure to make an early attempt to clothe their god. We can see them hesitating between two paths, One of the most important and best pre- served statues found by Cesnola at Golgos is a colossus nearly ten feet high, which is certainly meant for Hercules. 1 Here the god wears the lion's skin on his head ; his left hand brandishes a club while his right grasps a bundle of arrows. This statue is draped, and it may have been the temple statue, the chief idol. Nothing is bare but the legs ; the torso is covered with a sort of tight tunic held in at the waist by a girdle. But the case is different when we turn to one of the bas-reliefs on the pedestal (Fig. in). 2 In this relief we see figured one of the labours of Hercules ; 1 CESNOLA, Cyprus, pp. 132-135, &c., and plate xii. 8 Ibid. pp. 136-137. CECCALDI, Monuments antiques, 6v., pp. 55-56.