Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/287

 PAINTING. 263 statuettes on which one or other of these colours has been spread over all the drapery. But although colour was sparingly introduced on stone figures it was lavished on those of clay. The difference is to be easily- explained. When the Phoenicians, impelled by the example of Chaldsea and Assyria, set themselves to make what had never, or scarcely ever, been made in Egypt, namely figurines in plain terra- cotta, they could not entirely shake off the influence of the glazed earthenware statuettes which existed in thousands about them ; they were naturally tempted to rival the brilliant enamel spread upon every amulet or figurine which was sent from Egypt. And they were encouraged to make the attempt by the facility with which colour could be fixed upon clay by simply firing them together ; by such a process a durability only less than that of the vitrified glaze was insured. Phoenicia, then, was the cause of no progress in the use of paint ; but she coloured the surfaces of her sepulchral monuments and perhaps of some other things to which time has been less tender ; in her lapidary sculpture, she endeavoured to make colour make up for defects of execution ; upon her terra-cotta figures she lavished the brightest and most lively tints, while upon certain vases, jewels, and objects of glass, she imitated the colours of Egyptian ena- mel with no little success. Like their teachers in Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Phoenicians had the sentiment of colour, and by handing on the traditions they received, they at least helped to develop a taste for polychromy among the nations with whom they came into contact.