DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0149
Chap, v.] Recent Discoveries and the Homeric Poems. 127
Ionia and Assyria contribute comparatively little to
them.
Other metal bowls of silver and bronze, which are also
ascribed to Phoenician workshops, have been found in
various countries of the Mediterranean, more particularly
in Etruria and Cyprus. These bowls have been repeatedly
published * and discussed. Their most remarkable charac-
teristic lies in the way in which they combine the represen-
tations of Egyptian and Assyrian art. In alternate bands,
sometimes in alternate groups of the same band, we may
discern, mingled together, Egyptian kings slaying their
foes, Assyi'ian monarchs hunting lions, the scarabaeus of
Egypt, the sacred tree of Assyria, scenes of ritual such as
figure on the walls of Egyptian tombs, and incidents of
court life such as we see depicted on the walls of the
palaces of Nimroud. These vessels of thoroughly eclectic
or mixed art belong to a later period than the vases of
Nimroud, which show mainly Egyptian influence. They
must belong to the seventh and the sixth centuries before
the Christian era ; and this date will well suit the objects
found with them in Cyprus and in Etruria.
There can be no doubt that works in metal so finished
and effective as these engraved Phoenician bowls must
have had great influence in Greece and Italy, more espe-
cially because they came at a time when the old art of
Greece was nearly extinct, and no new art had yet arisen
to take its place. In Etruria we find careful and well-
executed copies of some of the more usual and mechanical
designs on these bowls. We might have imagined- that
the importation of works so complete into Greece would
have produced in that land also mere imitations more or
less perfect. But careful copying did not suit the Greek
nature. Hellenic artists were at all periods original and
* L. P. di Cesnola, Cyprus, pi. xix. Perrot et Chipiez, Hist, de
PArt, vol. iii. pp. 759, 769, 779, &c,
Ionia and Assyria contribute comparatively little to
them.
Other metal bowls of silver and bronze, which are also
ascribed to Phoenician workshops, have been found in
various countries of the Mediterranean, more particularly
in Etruria and Cyprus. These bowls have been repeatedly
published * and discussed. Their most remarkable charac-
teristic lies in the way in which they combine the represen-
tations of Egyptian and Assyrian art. In alternate bands,
sometimes in alternate groups of the same band, we may
discern, mingled together, Egyptian kings slaying their
foes, Assyi'ian monarchs hunting lions, the scarabaeus of
Egypt, the sacred tree of Assyria, scenes of ritual such as
figure on the walls of Egyptian tombs, and incidents of
court life such as we see depicted on the walls of the
palaces of Nimroud. These vessels of thoroughly eclectic
or mixed art belong to a later period than the vases of
Nimroud, which show mainly Egyptian influence. They
must belong to the seventh and the sixth centuries before
the Christian era ; and this date will well suit the objects
found with them in Cyprus and in Etruria.
There can be no doubt that works in metal so finished
and effective as these engraved Phoenician bowls must
have had great influence in Greece and Italy, more espe-
cially because they came at a time when the old art of
Greece was nearly extinct, and no new art had yet arisen
to take its place. In Etruria we find careful and well-
executed copies of some of the more usual and mechanical
designs on these bowls. We might have imagined- that
the importation of works so complete into Greece would
have produced in that land also mere imitations more or
less perfect. But careful copying did not suit the Greek
nature. Hellenic artists were at all periods original and
* L. P. di Cesnola, Cyprus, pi. xix. Perrot et Chipiez, Hist, de
PArt, vol. iii. pp. 759, 769, 779, &c,