Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/42

 20 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. It is not likely that every Phoenician ship had exactly the same figure on its bows ; carvers must have exercised their fancy to some extent, just as they do now, and given a certain variety to the ships they decorated, by changes in the execution of their figure- heads. All that Herodotus tells us is that the objects in question had a general resemblance to pygmies, those little people who in the days of the "Father of History," were such favourites with the decorators of Greek pottery. This is confirmed by the evidence of the stone and terra-cotta statuettes which have come down to us. In a statuette or two from Cyprus and a few amulets from Sardinia we find a child-god whose form and attitude both recall those of a yet unborn foetus, a resemblance which gave a name to the Ptah we have mentioned (Fig. 17). On the other hand we recognize Bes at a glance in many of these statuettes. His attributes and peculiar physiognony are carefully reproduced. When it is a question of some minute figure in blue, green, or white glazed faience, which hung on neck- laces or was sewn on shrouds, we may ask whether it was made in Phoenicia or imported from Egypt. No such doubt arises in the case of an unglazed statuette ; Egypt never seems to have made use of the unprotected clay. 1 We may, therefore, be fairly sure that any object in such a material came from a Phoenician workshop, but all doubt may be removed by examining the nature of the earth and the severity of the firing. We have already given three specimens from the Syrian coast (Vol. I. Figs. 21, 22, and Fig. 3) ; 2 here is a fourth (Fig. 18) ; it comes from Sardinia. All four have features in common, while their pose and the arrangement of their hair, beards and costume, are different. The head of one is covered with a large veil, which falls on the back and shoulders in numerous folds. His right hand, now broken off, held a weapon, his left arm supports a shield with a central boss. His mouth is closed (Vol. I. Fig. 22). In another example it is wide open and the tongue pendent. Here the eyes must once have been filled in with enamel ; they are nothing at present but gaping hollows. The figure is standing with both 1 HEUZEY, Catalogue des figurines antiques de terre cuite du Musee du Louvre, p. 5. 2 These statuettes were found at Tortosa, upon the continental domain of Arvad. They were bought by the Louvre from M. Peretie. A fourth statuette, very like that shown in Fig. 21, was found at the same place, and is now in the Louvre (LONGPERIER, Musee Napoleon III., plate xix.).