Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/26

 4 HISTORY or ART IN PHCENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. Astarte ; it is a pasticcio upon an Egyptian type, but its execution is extremely skilful ; we should be willing to ascribe this last- named work to the time of the latter Achsemenids or the Ptolemies. Our museums are full of Phoenician bronzes of the Seleucid period ; M. Louis de Clercq possesses the richest series yet formed ; but their study belongs rather to the history of Greek sculpture. As for the minute figures of men and animals carved in the precious metals by the artisans of Tyre and Sidon; it will be time to talk of them when we come to treat Phoenician jewelry and goldsmiths' work. The Phoenicians do not seem to have used clay to make bricks, but they employed it readily enough for jars and vases of every kind. They even made anthropoid sarcophagi of earthenware, 1 FIG. 2. Bronze statuette. Height 18 inches. In M. Peretie's collection. moulding them in two very large pieces. Of more interest, however, than such objects as these, are the numerous little terra- cotta figures, in which they represented both themselves and their gods. " These statuettes are modelled from the same clay, whether they come from the north of Phoenicia or the south ; it is of a ferruginous nature, and nearer red than yellow in tint. The clay is prepared with such care that it is difficult to distinguish it from the plastic earths employed in other countries, notably in Greece and the islands off the coast of Asia Minor. The older works are slightly redder in colour than the later. They often show glassy spangles and are apt to split. All these figures betray the at least 1 See ante, pp. 189-191, Vol. I. and Fig. 130.