Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/351

 CERAMICS IN CYPRUS. 323 kind has been met with in Egypt, in Mesopotamia, or Phoenicia ; it is in Cyprus that we first encounter that painted vase which is henceforth to play such an important part in the history of ancient art. Should the Phoenicians be credited with this fertile innovation? we think not. From nothing found in their country have we any reason to believe that they opened any new prospect whatever to art. This step forward should, we think, be laid to the credit of that Greek element in the population of Cyprus which was, as we have seen, the preponderant one. We have explained how great its influence must have been on the development of Cypriot sculp- ture ; why should we believe it did less for ceramics ? We should divide Cypriot vases into the following classes. In the first we should place those vessels with very thick walls and incised decoration, which we have called " Alambra vases" although in fact many of them were found at other points in the island ; we ascribe them to the primitive colonists, of un- known race. There is nothing to contradict the belief that they represent a first and very ancient Phoenician industry. In any case the hand of a Phoenician potter is to be recognised in the second class, made up of vases with thinner walls, more skilfully turned, and covered with painted, but still geometrical, ornament. To the Phoenicians may also be ascribed vases with motives taken directly from the East, such as the palmette and the lotus flower, and some of those modelled in the shape of animals. This fancy occurred to the Egyptians also. Finally, we see no good reason to deprive them of all share in the production of those vases on the necks of which human heads were painted or modelled in relief ; but among the latter we find more than one example clearly betraying the influence of Greek sculpture (Fig. 230). The potter's industry cannot long have been monopolized by the Phoenicians of the island ; the Greek immigrants must soon have learnt to turn the materials furnished by the soil to their proper use, to manage the potter's wheel, the brush, and the modelling stick. At first, no doubt, they would be content to imitate the works of a people who knew all the secrets of an industry which had covered all the shores of the Mediterranean with its products, but they would not have been Greeks had they been content to go on exactly in the line of their masters, and in time they made the great step in advance of which we have already spoken ; they set