Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/77

 Bronzes, Statuettes, Votive Boats. 59 nor are they to be compared with the rich collections at Cagliari and Sassari, including private ones, which are little visited by out- siders. Hence our desire to make them public property will be appreciated by the reader when we state that only a few years back their existence was unknown to all except half a dozen scholars. In describing them, however, the historian will be unable to follow the method he employed with Phoenician and Cypriote art-productions. These, it will be recollected, were produced from moulds yielding several samples, and afterwards touched up with thumb or boaster according to the degree of skill and fancy of the potter ; hence the facility afforded us for selecting pieces as types among the vast numbers of such monuments. It is otherwise with Sardinian bronzes, where the difficulties besetting the classifier are well-nigh insurmountable, owing to their endless variety, not two being exactly alike. The notable difference between the figures induces the belief that they were cast over a central and removable core. To give, therefore, an adequate idea of the workmanship and detail of these figures would require samples of all the well-preserved and genuine pieces preserved in the various collections which have been most liberally opened to us. La Marmora and Gerhardt, who first wrote about these statu- ettes, called them " idols," believing them to be representations of deities. 1 Much ingenuity was displayed by the latter in trying to prove that they belonged to the Phoenician celestial host, but later excavations have enabled archaeologists to arrive at a more correct conclusion. 2 Of the genuine bronzes recovered by La Marmora, only a small number can be assigned a divine character. Such is Fig. 51, showing the back and front view of a statuette dug up at Teti, having two pair of arms and an equal number of eyes dis- tributed indifferently about head and limbs, and carrying a couple of swords and circular shields on each arm. In Fig. 52, from the same locality, is the statuette to the right with three pair of eyes 1 La Marmora, Voyage en Sardaigne, torn. ii. ch. vi. 1840 : Idoles Sardes pro- prement dites. See also G. Cara, Sulla genuinità delli idoli Sardo fenici, etc., Cag- liari, 1876, with 16 Plates. We made little use of this bulky volume, save to trace the history of some statuettes, because of the utter lack of acumen in the author, who does not distinguish spurious from genuine figures. His descriptions of antique bronzes are valuable; he is more concerned, however, with modern productions. 3 See note, Chapter I. p. 9, of this volume.