Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/98

 76 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. The oldest of these figures are even ruder, squarer in their forms and more obviously primitive, than the imitative types in the two first series ; add to this that they show a curious desire to get a laugh and to draw the corners of the eyes up towards the temples, which are entirely absent from the series before described. "In some details of costume and, especially, in the hieratic stiffness of these little figures, we may recognize the persistence of ideas dating from the schools of Egypt and Mesopotamia ; but these same traditions are to be found in the archaic art of Greece, and yet they do not destroy its vigorous originality. " Moreover it is not long before graceful methods of arranging the hair and of wearing drapery, quite unknown to the art of Egypt and the East, but common with the Greeks and chiefly with the lonians of Asia Minor make their appearance. And although the material of these figures is identical with that of the pseudo- As- syrian and pseudo-Egyptian statuettes, their technique is different enough. They are hollow castings, without detached pieces or re- touches with the point ; while the bases of the preceding series are widely opened, those of that now under discussion are closed all but a small air-hole, which is made, apparently, by the workman with the handle of his modelling tool. Drapery is nearly always painted, generally in purple and pale green, but these colours, being laid directly upon the fired clay, are greatly faded." l We have already shown our readers a considerable number of statuettes in which these features occur (Vol. I. Figs. 20, 25, 142, and Figs. 23, 47, 48) ; here are two more, one from each of the two classes into which this group may be divided. The first class consists of seated figures. The attitude of the body is much more clearly indicated than in figures of the Egyptian style ; the thrones are stepped and often have arms which stand out beyond the person seated between them (Fig. 23). Sometimes the latter will hold a dove in one of his hands (Vol. I. Fig. 20) ; else- where the arms are placed upon the knees, as in an unusually well preserved statuette from Amrit (Fig. 68). 2 The head is covered with a high cylindrical hat from which lappets hang down over the shoulders. These elevated head-dresses belonged in the first in- stance to the queens and goddesses of the East, but they were soon appropriated by the early artists of Greece and used under the 1 HEUZEY, Catalogue, pp. 82-84. - Ibid. No. 202.