Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/284

 A History of Art in Sardinia and Judjea. Bronze fragment found at Olympia. declaring the stages illusion produced by of construction, horizontal and be inferred that the shaft, nine metres high, was produced at one jet. It is difficult, however, to believe that Hiram, skilful artificer though he was, would have subjected his work to so great a risk, when the same result was obtainable otherwise, for the parts could be nailed, pinned, or riveted together ; their mode of attachment de- veloped into a construc- tive ornamental feature, by bands or mouldings covering the joints and The well-known optical flowing forms, as against perpendicular lines, obliged us to seek ornamental subjects over which the eye could travel from base to crown. Flutings are not met with, to our knowledge, in the whole range of Assyrian art ; hence our adoption of slightly raised lines or stems, which serve to create and define the faces, with a band of conventional leaves and blossoms at the two extremities of the shaft. Graven forms or palms cover the whole surface of the pillar not occupied by vertical forms, up to the first joint, 1 whence they only fill every other face, whilst lotus leaves and flowers, akin to those of the bronzes recovered at Olympia 169) 2 and of the Punic stelas, are introduced (Fig. 170). Then, too, the scheme of the ornament being flat or slightly raised, does not interfere with the capital, and allows, moreover, the plain 1 Hist, of Art, torn. iii. p. 131, Figs. 73, 76, 81, etc. 2 Furtwangler, Die Bronzefttnde aus Olympia, Fig. 9, p. 44 (1880). Fig. 170 Bibliothèque (Fig-