DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32867#0304
CHAPTER VII
SCULPTURE, MOSAIC, AND WALL-PAINTING
IN NORTHERN CENTRAL SYRIA
^PHE monuments of sculpture in Northern Central Syria are few and badly mutila-
T ted ; the remains of mosaic are still rarer, although we found one well-preserved
example of this art; the remnants of wall-painting are the rarest of all: but such
notes as I was able to collect upon these subjects I shall combine in this chapter, as
addenda to the preceding chapters, for these three branches of art are closely allied
with that of architecture in Northern Central Syria.
SCULPTURE
IT is out of the question to expect to find well-preserved sculptures above the soil in
a country like Syria, where the fanatical Mohammedan inhabitants during the last
twelve hundred years, and perhaps equally fanatical Christian iconoclastic inhabitants
of centuries still older, have spent much time in the defacing of carved representations
of the human form, and even of the figures of animals, wherever they appeared in the
sculptures of the pagan period of art; for the sculpture that we found in this region
was almost without exception of non-Christianwvorkmanship, the only work of un-
doubted Christian origin being the Agnus Dei relief, 1 discovered by M. de Vogiie, which
some pious man had carved in rather crude style upon the front of his house.
For lack of any large body of monuments or of any considerable number of dated
works which would facilitate a historical or chronological discussion of the sculpture,
I shall review the subject geographically, beginning with the monuments found far-
thest north, and taking them up in order toward the south. It will be found that most
of the subjects may be classed either as religious or funeral, though religious
subjects often appear in funeral monuments.
Katura. funeral reliefs. Katura is the site of two classic monuments of
architecture, the tomb of Reginus and that of Isidoros, the former 2 a late second-
1 La Syrie Centrale, Pl. 48. 2See p. 61.
272
SCULPTURE, MOSAIC, AND WALL-PAINTING
IN NORTHERN CENTRAL SYRIA
^PHE monuments of sculpture in Northern Central Syria are few and badly mutila-
T ted ; the remains of mosaic are still rarer, although we found one well-preserved
example of this art; the remnants of wall-painting are the rarest of all: but such
notes as I was able to collect upon these subjects I shall combine in this chapter, as
addenda to the preceding chapters, for these three branches of art are closely allied
with that of architecture in Northern Central Syria.
SCULPTURE
IT is out of the question to expect to find well-preserved sculptures above the soil in
a country like Syria, where the fanatical Mohammedan inhabitants during the last
twelve hundred years, and perhaps equally fanatical Christian iconoclastic inhabitants
of centuries still older, have spent much time in the defacing of carved representations
of the human form, and even of the figures of animals, wherever they appeared in the
sculptures of the pagan period of art; for the sculpture that we found in this region
was almost without exception of non-Christianwvorkmanship, the only work of un-
doubted Christian origin being the Agnus Dei relief, 1 discovered by M. de Vogiie, which
some pious man had carved in rather crude style upon the front of his house.
For lack of any large body of monuments or of any considerable number of dated
works which would facilitate a historical or chronological discussion of the sculpture,
I shall review the subject geographically, beginning with the monuments found far-
thest north, and taking them up in order toward the south. It will be found that most
of the subjects may be classed either as religious or funeral, though religious
subjects often appear in funeral monuments.
Katura. funeral reliefs. Katura is the site of two classic monuments of
architecture, the tomb of Reginus and that of Isidoros, the former 2 a late second-
1 La Syrie Centrale, Pl. 48. 2See p. 61.
272