Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/96

 74 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. paste is apt to split, owing to imperfect firing, but they are often, as in the war-chariots, very complex in their designs ; some parts are modelled with the fingers and stuck on, others are cut out with a sharp instrument, but the human figures are shaped in a mould and are hollow. A distinctive feature of the series is the rendering of details of hair, beard, and ornament, by lines lightly engraved with the point. Another detail should be noticed : the eyes are either horizontal or slightly drooped at the outer corners instead of being drawn up towards the temples." 1 The statuettes in which the influsnce of Egypt may perhaps be recognized are flat at the back, hollow, and thin in their walls, features that do not suggest any great antiquity. Moreover, the maker of these latter figures follows his model less closely, as if he had learnt to trust more to his own ideas and to interpret the religious conceptions of the people for whom he worked in a more independent spirit. No detail is borrowed all-standing from Egypt ; we are simply allowed to feel that the creations of Egyptian sculptors were known to the Syrian artist and that he endeavoured to put some of their nobility into his own work. "The engraved lines mentioned above do not reappear on the smooth skin of these later figures. Such retouches as are used to add definition to a feature or to heighten an ornament are put in with a brushful of red or black paint. The softness of the handling gives a look of distinction very far removed from primitive rudeness ; we are allowed to divine the presence, in the background, of a more perfect art. The proportions of the face in particular, with its long horizontal eyes, its large, thin, and but slightly salient nose, its mouth and chin so small when compared with the features above them, belong to the graceful type brought into fashion by the art of the Saite dynasties." 2 This group of figures, which some have proposed to call pseudo- Egyptian, is composed entirely by variations on a single motive, namely, a woman seated on a throne. As a rule, however, the forms are so roughly indicated that we have some difficulty in discovering whether the figure stands or sits. Its distinctive feature is always the Egyptian head-dress (Vol. I. Figs. 143 and I44). 3 The chief modification is the enlargement of its mass 1 HEUZEY, Catalogue, p. 65. 2 Ibid pp 69 _ yo 3 Ibid. Nos. 192-195, and plate vi. in the folio les Figurines antiques du Afusee du Louvre.