Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/218

 A History of Art in Sardinia and Judaea. merits of the Jehovistic cultus by abstaining from the graven r sculptured images of the Phoenician pantheon, so lavishly c tributed in their own places of worship. Thus far did tl modify their general mode of procedure ; but their style a methods were the same, and were not altered because th happened to work at Jerusalem, rather than at Sidon or Tyr and were for all the world those which we have described in ol History of Art, torn. iii. chap. ii. Brought up within the precincts of the temple, Ezekiel knew of no art except that which was displayed around him, the main outlines of which had sank deep into his heart, and were among the first impressions his youthful mind had received. What mor natural, therefore, than that his ideal building should have be« constructed on the model of the Solomonian edifice ? For the purpose of our restoration, therefore, it will be leg' mate to introduce the forms that distinguish the rare monumc of Phoenicia hitherto recovered ; together with those of undoul Jewish origin, spared by the hand of man or time. T 1 although later in date, exhibit the methods of an earlier p and are irrefragable witnesses to the persistency of custom certain nationalities. On the architect will devolve the onerous task of se among the diversified materials. His success will depenc his thorough mastery of Oriental methods and Oriental tecture. The reader will have guessed ere now, that we have been up — not to a restitution of Solomon's temple, at best ar of slender pretentions — but to that of Ezekiel, a bier idealism and reality, the last note of sacerdotal ambit supreme effort of Hebrew genius in translating its ideas crete forms and combination of lines subject to the laws o It is its finest artistic monument, the only one it eve If this be granted, it will cause no surprise, that yiel' alluring a temptation we should have essayed to re? great document, whose image floating mid heave' passed before the wistful gaze of the seer as he sat window of his tenement overlooking the river and plain of Mesopotamia ; this image the Jews of Û unable to transform into being.