Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/283

 Furniture and Ornament about the Temple. 255 is given for enlarging the volume of the fruit and the network, which, despite their elevation, can be easily seen. Reference to the annexed Figs. 165 and 166, as well as Plates VI. and VII., will enable the reader to understand the economy of our scheme. Pomegranates as an ornament are of frequent occurrence on Punic stelas of Tanit, where the prominent position they occupy at the top of the single pillar seems to imply that the peculiarity of the fruit caused it to be considered as the emblem of life (Figs. 167 and 168). Then, too, with our method the divisions of height assigned to the capital are easy of apprehension : it measures five cubits, or four, excluding the secondary member, which we are at liberty to place above or under it. Adoption of the latter mode would reduce the size to a transition moulding interposed between the shaft and the capital. But, given the shape which we have adopted, such binding would be superfluous. On the other hand, it was far more important to secure a felicitous ending to the column ; and this we claim to have done. In shape it is not unlike a flower bud, with a ring of conventional lotus leaves curling outwardly towards the upper end, thus deepening the shades and consequently the lights. Small beads, corresponding with those on the capital, intervene be- tween the slits which occur at the beginning of each leaf and serve to accentuate the form. The shaft, although less complicated than the capital, was not without presenting difficulties of its own. These our predecessors settled to their own satisfaction, if to no one else's, when they confined themselves to giving one fragment only, which they con- ceived as being plain or smooth. But had they completed their restoration they would have been the first to perceive that to bring in juxtaposition so extensive a plain surface as the tall shaft, with the elaborate capital, was unsatisfactory, not to say incongruous. We read that the capitals were cast separately, from which it might •Punic Stela. Nationale. Bibliothiqti