Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/325

 CERAMICS IN CYPRUS. 297 upon it, and employed with taste and discretion. The design as a whole is of extreme finesse. All details made up of straight lines and curves are carried out with quite remarkable precision. The contrast between the upper and lower parts of the vase is happily conceived. The ornament on the lower half is comparatively sober ; it is entirely made up of horizontal scrolls separated by bands of plain surface. The upper half, on the other hand, is' entirely cov- ered with ornament. It is divided into panels, some of which FIG. 231. The Ormidia vase. Metropolitan Museum of New York. Height 28^ inches. are filled with checks and with eight-pointed rosettes, while others, round the widest part of the body, contain groups made up of a quadruped with a bird between its legs. These quadrupeds are very ill drawn. At first sight they look like giraffes, but the Cypriot artisans can never even have heard of such a beast. Examined in the light of other vases of the same kind, in which the representation is a little less imperfect, we recognize them as horses ; and if we look at them with some attention we see that, at VOL. n. Q Q