Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/88

 66 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. torso, while he takes from some Grecian work the garland of leaves and the ample base which give the lower part of his shaft such a non-Egyptian richness. In their skilful combination of these foreign motives and in a certain graceful unexpectedness of their own, these columns do great honour to their Phoenician creator nowhere else do we get a better chance of studying the action of the Phoenician genius on the rare occasions when it combined invention with imitation. Imagine what an original and imposing effect rows of columns like these would have if FIG. 61. Stele from Adrumetum. Limestone. Height 28 inches. Louvre. repeated on the facade and perhaps the sides of a temple. It is difficult to admit that such a happy arrangement can have been imagined by the carver of the stele ; may we not suggest that he copied some part of the temple in which these votive monuments were placed ? On several of the steles from Adrumetum nothing is figured but a vase or pitcher, always without a handle. The Louvre possesses one of which the field is divided into two compartments by a quadruple fillet (Fig. 62) ; the lower half bears two caducei ;