Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/77

 PHCENICIAN SCULPTURE IN THE WEST. 55 thus the goddess with the disk seems to have been a greater favourite in the Phoenician colonies than in the ports of the mother-country. The question as to where these statuettes were made may be finally decided by examination of the earths of which they are composed. Some comparisons which we have been enabled to make with the help of two fragmentary terra-cottas sent to us from Sardinia by MM. Vivanet and Crespi, confirm us in the FIG. 49. Sardinian statuette. Terra-cotta. Height 8^ inches. Cagliari Museum. belief that they were, as a rule, modelled in Sardinia from the earth of the country. 1 1 The fragments in question were submitted to M. Heuzey, who sent us the following note : " The clay of the two fragmentary terra-cottas confided to me is not the same as that of those statuettes in the Louvre which were found in Phoenicia. " Fragment No. i consists of a soft earth, with little consistency, which can be scratched with the finger-nail ; it is a yellowish-grey ; it has been roughly ground, and is still mixed with glassy spangles and bits of gravel. It contains mineral elements which might be submitted to the microscope with advantage. " Fragment No. 2 is of a brick-red clay, more carefully prepared than No. i, of medium hardness, and containing glassy spangles. Where broken it shows an irregular grain which is not to be found in the pieces from Phoenicia proper." Mr. Murray, who has had every opportunity of studying the rich series of terra- cottas from Tharros in the British Museum, has also noticed the two principal varieties of earth, the one a pale brown, the other a brick red. "Our Sardinian