Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/252

 234 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jvdma. would be preserved. To him who knows, however, minor acces- sories are of small importance, and scarcely to be weighed in the balance when compared with identity of style. Too much stress cannot well be laid on the important fact, that the sculptures in Asia Minor, no matter where encountered, be it in the heart of Cappadocia or Smyrna, t.e, at the very gates of Europe, were all executed in flat relief, without modelling, or so feeble that nothing of it remains in the centre of open spaces, or niches hollowed out in the rock surface. The figures are every- where distinguished by the same attitude, the same apportioning of the various parts, the same treatment of the nude and drapery. For centuries, from the Euphrates, or to speak more correctly, from the Halys to the shores of the i^gean, one single type, the only one created by an art whose resources were exceedingly limited, satisfied the needs of this conquering race, which left behind it the effigy of its kings and deities. The rock-cut figure in the same district, known as the Niobe of Mount Sipylus, may be added, albeit less confidently, to this series of archaic monuments due to Hittite influence. The low range called Sipylus, rises almost like a wall behind the bay of Smyrna. It is ten leagues long by three or four broad, exquisite in shape and colour. The highest peak, the Manissa Dagh, is on the east side, which is also the most abrupt ; the lamanlar Dagh, to the west, not reaching over 976 m., the gentle slopes of which are covered with remains of ancient structures, connected by tradition with the capital of Tantalus, of Pelops, and Niobe ; names w^hich lingered in the popular fancy, perhaps as an imperfect remembrance of a western Phrygian empire, which towards the twelfth or tenth century B.C., was absorbed by the growing power of the Lydians in the valley of the Hermus. The extent, number, and variety of these remains bear witness that a flourishing community was established here, long before the early Greek colonists settled on this coast. The inscription, in Hittite characters, which accompanies the colossal statue, called by the Turks Buyuk Souret, ''Great Image," indicates its priority of date over the sepulchral memorials, altars, niches, and rock-excavated harbours, which render the western slopes of Sipylus pre-eminent in world-wide interest. Hence we may be permitted to consider this figure as a gigantic idol, sculp- tured on the side of the clifl" by a people attracted here by the