Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/62

 4o HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. A pair of stone lions have been found at Oum-el-Awamid ; they must once have been placed right and left of a doorway (Fig. 36). the sculptor by whom they were carved was perhaps a pupil of the Greeks, for there is nothing oriental in his work except the way in which the hinder parts of the animal are left imbedded in FIG. 35. Engraved stone. Actual size. the block from which his fore-quarters have been disengaged. This convention is common enough in Assyria and in the work of those who had no masters but the sculptors of Mesopotamia, as for instance, in the Cappadocian monuments. FIG. 36. Lion at Oum-el-Awamid. Stone. From Renan. Other animals, whether real or fantastic, play but a small part in Phoenicia. The goats and rams carried by worshippers to their gods are only introduced as explanatory details ; we never feel that the artist took any interest in them for their own sakes, like the sculptors of Assyria and Egypt ; he never cared to study and