Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/73

 PHOENICIAN SCULPTURE IN THE WEST. 5 i evidence as to its birthplace. The provenance of a work of art is only good evidence of its origin in two cases. We may be sure that sculptures in the living rock or statues of great size and weight were the work of the natives of the country in which they occur unless we have proof to the contrary. But when it is a question of coins, of jewels, of metal or terra-cotta statuettes, we can only look upon them as a natural product of the soil when they are found in great numbers within a comparatively narrow space. It was not so with the bronze from Marach, so that we may refuse to look beyond its internal qualities for evidence as to the class in which it should be placed. 6. Phcsmcian Scttlpture in the West. Cyprus has furnished a great number of monuments on which Phoenician style and taste have left their mark, but, on the other hand, the Greek elements took early root in the island, and from the contact of the two races and^ the two styles rose an art which had a peculiar physiognomy of its own. Moreover, by a lucky chance, antiquity is far better preserved in Cyprus than on the Syrian coast. Our constant preoccupation in dealing with Phoenicia proper was to omit none of the scanty remains left to us by time and the violence of man, but when we turn to Cyprus we are embarrassed by the multitude of things offered to our choice. We shall, therefore, make Cypriot sculpture the subject of a special study, passing it over for the moment to inquire what Phoenician art became in those western colonies which, after preserving the purity of the Semitic blood for so long, became in time great centres of Latin civilization. In Spain none of those products of Phoenician industry which once flowed into the country have yet been recovered, but in Africa and in Sardinia we have had better luck. We shall encounter nothing, perhaps, to greatly modify the idea we have already formed of Phoenician art. but none the less shall we be glad of some additions to our knowledge. As yet the Louvre is without any terra-cottas from the Sardinian graveyards, but there are a few in London and a great many in the museums of Sardinia itself. 1 1 We have personally examined all the Sardinian terra-cottas in the British Museum. As for those at Cagliari we found ourselves unable to trust to the repro-