DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4921#0022
xxii
INTRODUCTION.
spirit a group of two goats standing erect and confronted, on either side of an Assyrian sacred
tree which has become conventionalized into a fantastic pillar or stand of some kind.* The
large rosettes stamped on the fore and hind quarters of the goats and the oblong tablets on their
sides, suggestive of cuneiform inscriptions, hardly admit of any explanation other than a direct
derivation from Assyria at the instance of the Phoenicians. So also the strictly heraldic
spacing of the figures corresponds with what we know of Phoenician art in its uncontaminated
state. But these remarks do not apply so well to the vases on Plate CVI. To an extent the
heraldic grouping is still retained. We have the same rosettes and oblong tablets on the goats
on the vase, Figs. 857, 858. But we find at the same time a new element of realism, a desire to
give actual meaning to the figures in place of the old conventionalisms. In Figs. 859, 860 the
huge birds—whatever their species may be—are made to attack the female figure, while she, in
her turn, is made to express alarm. That is surely something very different from the formalism
of Phoenician art. M. Perrot is no doubt right in declining to see in this group a representation
of the Greek myth of Leda and the swan.f but the fact of his mentioning this suggestion shows
that he was fully alive to the element of actuality in the design. In the costume of the female
figure, with the long band pendent in front, he recognizes a feature of Egyptian dress. But on
this point we may cite a well-known passage in the Supplices of ^Eschylus (v. 278), where the
costume of the daughters of Danaos, who had just arrived from Egypt, is described as of a
" Cypriote character," showing that the Cypriotes, though they had adopted an Egyptian
costume, had yet given it a " character " or stamp of their own. J
It may be that in regard to those vases we are here ascribing too much potency to a
desire for vivid and, in a measure, speaking representations of life. Other causes may have
operated also. But the fact is there for us to see plainly, that the old principle of a rigid framing
in of patterns and designs has been for the time at least abandoned in favor of freedom in
* Cesnola, Cyprus, p. 55, and Perrot and Chipiez, iii., p. 706.
f Histoirc d VArt, iii., 709.
t For examples of very strongly marked Assyrian features in the costume of a series of archaic terracottas found at Salamis, see
Hellenic Journal, xii., pi. 10, with the remarks of Mr. Munro, ibid., pp. 152, 153.
INTRODUCTION.
spirit a group of two goats standing erect and confronted, on either side of an Assyrian sacred
tree which has become conventionalized into a fantastic pillar or stand of some kind.* The
large rosettes stamped on the fore and hind quarters of the goats and the oblong tablets on their
sides, suggestive of cuneiform inscriptions, hardly admit of any explanation other than a direct
derivation from Assyria at the instance of the Phoenicians. So also the strictly heraldic
spacing of the figures corresponds with what we know of Phoenician art in its uncontaminated
state. But these remarks do not apply so well to the vases on Plate CVI. To an extent the
heraldic grouping is still retained. We have the same rosettes and oblong tablets on the goats
on the vase, Figs. 857, 858. But we find at the same time a new element of realism, a desire to
give actual meaning to the figures in place of the old conventionalisms. In Figs. 859, 860 the
huge birds—whatever their species may be—are made to attack the female figure, while she, in
her turn, is made to express alarm. That is surely something very different from the formalism
of Phoenician art. M. Perrot is no doubt right in declining to see in this group a representation
of the Greek myth of Leda and the swan.f but the fact of his mentioning this suggestion shows
that he was fully alive to the element of actuality in the design. In the costume of the female
figure, with the long band pendent in front, he recognizes a feature of Egyptian dress. But on
this point we may cite a well-known passage in the Supplices of ^Eschylus (v. 278), where the
costume of the daughters of Danaos, who had just arrived from Egypt, is described as of a
" Cypriote character," showing that the Cypriotes, though they had adopted an Egyptian
costume, had yet given it a " character " or stamp of their own. J
It may be that in regard to those vases we are here ascribing too much potency to a
desire for vivid and, in a measure, speaking representations of life. Other causes may have
operated also. But the fact is there for us to see plainly, that the old principle of a rigid framing
in of patterns and designs has been for the time at least abandoned in favor of freedom in
* Cesnola, Cyprus, p. 55, and Perrot and Chipiez, iii., p. 706.
f Histoirc d VArt, iii., 709.
t For examples of very strongly marked Assyrian features in the costume of a series of archaic terracottas found at Salamis, see
Hellenic Journal, xii., pi. 10, with the remarks of Mr. Munro, ibid., pp. 152, 153.