Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/224

 208 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. a commonplace device the ornamentist of the Lower Empire introduced wherever he found a bare corner. 1 Indeed, the bas- relief betrays the ease and freedom, the nerveless make of the Roman period. This detail apart, the Iskelib tomb is precisely similar to the monuments with which it has been compared ; like them it bears the stamp of an age when the influence of Greek culture had not yet made its way into the interior of the peninsula. The conclusion which forces itself upon the mind is that the cupids are an addition of the second or third century of our era, when the long-abandoned tomb received a new tenant. The so-called vault of Solon in Phrygia (Fig. 89) is a conspicuous and certain example of one of those tardy misappropriations. Thanks to this procedure, a man could give himself the luxury of a rich place of burial at little or no cost. All he had to do was to excavate a second chamber, restore the fagade, write an inscription over the doorway, and the thing was done. 2 The artist found here, as at Kastamouni, a pediment altogether devoid of ornament, and his horror vaccui prompted him to fill in the space with figures, that would rejuvenate the monument and clothe it in the fashion of the day. Along with these should be ranged first a tomb found at Tokat in Pontus, with a small and irregular chamber, and porch upheld by a single pillar ; 3 besides two other monuments, which seemingly belong to the same series. They are encountered in Paphlagonia : one near Tach Keupru, ancient Pompeiopolis, the other close to Tshangri, formerly Gangra. 4 All these monuments belong to a region which is pretty fairly delimitated by history and geography ; albeit these are not their only claims to be classed under one head. If, in some respects, they recall ex- emplars already met with either in Cappadocia or Phrygia, their resemblance to one another is so great, that had they not been found closely packed together, one would have been led to put the same label over them. A primary feature they have in common is that in Paphlagonia we see no traces of precautions 1 M. Hirschfeld (BENNDORF, Reisen in Lykien und Carien, torn. i. p. 80) observes in regard to a large sarcophagus, scarcely as old as the Antonines and found at Sidyma in Lycia, that nude winged figures form the acroteria of the frontal depicted upon it. 2 Hist, of Art, torn. v. pp. 135, 136. 3 HIRSCHFELD, Paphlagonische Felsengrceber, p. 24, Plate VII. 3. 4 Ibid., p. 25.