Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/376

 338 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. polychromes imitant la texture du dots,) which recall the vetri tarsiati and millefiori of Venice and were made by a similar process. There was the miniature glass, called sometimes but incorrectly mosaic glass, and the glass decorated with artificial gems, of which we have such a precious example in the French National Library in the Cup of Chosroes II. Add to all these, glass objects in the shapes of figures and fruits, glass with decorations in relief, cameo glass like the famous Portland vase, painted, engraved, and gilded glass, glass mounted in metal, and many more varieties which it would take too much space even to enumerate. All these belong to a date at least as late as the successors of Alexander, some to one no earlier than the Roman Emperors. By a natural effect of decadence the skill of the glass-worker then began to be admired far above artistic purity, and sums were paid for mere tours-de-force which the Greek ceramist of the great period never dreamt of. 4. Metallurgy. For seven or eight centuries the Phoenicians seem to have enjoyed a practical monopoly in the manufacture of vessels in copper, bronze, silver and gold, decorated with more or less com- plex and elegant designs, which were partly engraved and partly beaten out. In the time of Thothmes and Rameses, we already find the Phoenicians offering vases as tribute to the sovereigns of Egypt. In fact by metal alone could the shapes and colours of the vessels figured in the famous tomb of Rekhmara, the overseer of Thothmes III., be given. The accompanying inscriptions tell us whence the different series of presents deposited by vassals at the feet of the king have been brought ; the vessels figured below belong to the offering of the Khetas, that is to say, of the Phoe- nicians. Some of these may belong to works in ceramy, but the craters with thin stems and detached ornaments, the animals' heads with ears, snouts, and horns all freely relieved, the vessels with handles coming well below their points of attachment, must be in metal and may be looked upon as works of the Phoenician smith. * 1 The pictures in this tomb have been described by HOSKINS (Voyage en Ethiopie, pp. 328 et seq.}, who was the first to open it, whence it is sometimes called Hoskins's tomb. The pictures are reproduced in colour, in plates xlvi-xlix. The most interesting part is also fac-similed by WILKINSON, (Manners and Customs, &*., vol. i. p. 38 and plate ii.).