DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4920#0010
INTRODUCTION CONTINUED.
head-dress are draped in a peculiar manner, with a short, tight-fitting garment, leaving
the limbs exposed. These garments have the same fleurettes as the bandlets of the head,
but similar dress is rarely seen in ancient art. Some of the figures of this style appear
to have a beard, or else the tunic covering the chin; others are unbearded. The drapery
with which they are so slightly covered has its parallel in that of certain Egyptian
jugglers1 at an early period, and that of Greek female performers of tricks of force or
skill, about the third century B.C.,2 who required freedom of action for the limbs. It is
difficult, however, to conceive what mythological or other personages these figures could
have represented, except a form of Aphrodite or Venus.
Although portraiture in Greek art does not date earlier than Mausolus, or about
B.C. 350, it is of high antiquity in Egypt and Assyria; and while many of the Cypriote
heads of early style appear to be portraits according to some of the Cypriote princes,
priests, or musicians, it is difficult to conceive how these portraits should have been
introduced into the island at so remote a period. Some are, without doubt, conventional
mythological personages, or deities, referable to the Phoenician, or Greek, mythology. In
all cases the art is imitated or adapted from other models, with peculiarities that show
it was not servilely copied, nor the motives of its prototype thoroughly understood.
1 Wilkinson, Mann. & Cnst., New ed., vol. n., p. 54.
1 Bulletino Arch. Napolit., torn. v. 1.; cf. vi., 5, 6.
head-dress are draped in a peculiar manner, with a short, tight-fitting garment, leaving
the limbs exposed. These garments have the same fleurettes as the bandlets of the head,
but similar dress is rarely seen in ancient art. Some of the figures of this style appear
to have a beard, or else the tunic covering the chin; others are unbearded. The drapery
with which they are so slightly covered has its parallel in that of certain Egyptian
jugglers1 at an early period, and that of Greek female performers of tricks of force or
skill, about the third century B.C.,2 who required freedom of action for the limbs. It is
difficult, however, to conceive what mythological or other personages these figures could
have represented, except a form of Aphrodite or Venus.
Although portraiture in Greek art does not date earlier than Mausolus, or about
B.C. 350, it is of high antiquity in Egypt and Assyria; and while many of the Cypriote
heads of early style appear to be portraits according to some of the Cypriote princes,
priests, or musicians, it is difficult to conceive how these portraits should have been
introduced into the island at so remote a period. Some are, without doubt, conventional
mythological personages, or deities, referable to the Phoenician, or Greek, mythology. In
all cases the art is imitated or adapted from other models, with peculiarities that show
it was not servilely copied, nor the motives of its prototype thoroughly understood.
1 Wilkinson, Mann. & Cnst., New ed., vol. n., p. 54.
1 Bulletino Arch. Napolit., torn. v. 1.; cf. vi., 5, 6.