Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/311

 INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 295 centuries older, perhaps, than the reign of Gyges ; and would, therefore, lead back to the period when the only intercourse Lydia had with the great civilized nations of Anterior Asia was through the intermediary of the Syro-Cappadocians, when Greece was not. What the images engraved upon it specially recall are the most barbarous works of what we have called Hittite art; for example, the bas-reliefs of the Eyuk palace. 1 The cabinet of antiquities of the Bibliotheque Nationale has another mould of serpentine, the origin of which is unknown (Fig. 210). It represents a man and a woman standing side by side. His dress is a short tunic falling short much above the knee, and a mantle thrown over one shoulder, leaving apparently the other arm and the legs exposed. He wears a long thick beard, and his head is covered with a kind of pointed helmet. The arms are bent and rest upon the chest, a movement repeated by his companion, whose fingers point to, but do not close upon her breasts. Her arms and bust are frankly nude, but the skirt, her only item of dress, reaches to her ankles. Upon her crescent-shaped head-dress are traced geometric characters. Her luxuriant hair falls in thick ringlets on either side of her face. The two bars rising obliquely on each side of her, may perhaps be explained as remains of the apparatus required for casting the figure. When the mould under notice was discovered some twenty years ago, and attention drawn to it, it was attributed to the twelfth century A.D. and described as an image of Baphomet, to which the Templars, said their enemies, were wont to offer idolatrous homage. 2 At that time, however, the ancient art of Asia was so imperfectly known as to render the mistake excusable. Our better informed judgment cannot hesitate to recognize in it a monument precisely 1 Hist, of Art, torn. iv. Figs. 328-338. 2 CHARBOUILLET, Catalogue general et raisonnc des canices et pierres grarces de la Bibliotheque impcriale, 8vo, 1858, No. 2255. FIG. 210. Mould of serpentine. Actual size. Cabinet des Antiques.