DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0145
MONGREL CHARACTER OF PHOENICIAN ART. 113
From existing monuments and the records of history, it is evident that the
familiarity of the Phoenicians with products of Egypt and Babylon exercised
great influence on their art. Thus Solomon's temple, the work of Phoenicians,
seems to have been in its plan Egyptian, but Assyrian in plastic decoration.'39
Moreover, their extensive trade could not fail to develop the industrial arts.
Solomon ordered rare objects of Hiram, king of Tyre, and gave hire to his
servants, who executed them according to all that Hiram appointed.'40 Had
we records of the business relations of this ancient people, we should doubt-
less find, that for other lands likewise they made art-objects for sale.
The excavations of M. Renan on Phoenician soil yielded very few sculp-
tured monuments, but in all these the influence of foreign art was evident.
Egyptian forms were most frequently met with, such as the winged disk,
decorating the entrance to ruined temples, and the sarcophagi in the form
of the Egyptian mummy-cases.h1 These latter are covered by a slab in imi-
tation of the mummy in its shroud, out of which the head, and occasionally
the hands, appear. A number of these Phoenician sarcophagi were discovered
on various sites, and are now in the Louvre. One is executed in the stone
of the country ; but the remainder are in marble, which must have been im-
ported for the purpose. Sarcophagi of the same style have been discovered on
many different sites where Phoenicians settled, as in Cyprus, Sicily, Malta,
and Corsica. One, discovered at Palermo, was painted in imitation of cloth,
a strange and meaningless addition to stone, but evidently intended to imitate
the mummy-wraps of Egypt. The rendering of the faces on these sarcophagi
varies ; but the far greater part show the influence of Greek art, and conse-
quently must belong to a comparatively late date, as is also indicated by the
style of the graves where they were discovered.
Half-lions in coarse native stone, which decorated a grave at Amrith, the
ancient Marathos, show a remote resemblance to Assyrian motives, but are
so rudely blocked out, and left so unfinished, that it is difficult to judge of
their artistic affinities (Fig. 59).
On the island of Arados, off the Phoenician coast, M. Renan discovered a
very characteristic and interesting subject, a part of which is given in Fig. 60.
Here, carved in very low relief, are two winged griffins, standing, one on each
side of a sacred tree, and tasting, as it seems, of its fruit. This tree is made
up entirely of motives borrowed from Egypt; and its spreading part is re-
peated in symmetrical regularity above this griffin relief, in imitation, as it
were, of rich hangings. The forms of these griffins, as Furtwangler's com-
parison has shown, are the same as those decorating utensils and ornaments
on Egyptian monuments of as early an age as that of Thothmes III.1**2 From
the hieroglyphics, however, accompanying such representations in Egypt, it
seems clear that the vessels ornamented with this griffin with closed beak
were the work of Phoenicians imported into Egypt. These griffins re-appear
From existing monuments and the records of history, it is evident that the
familiarity of the Phoenicians with products of Egypt and Babylon exercised
great influence on their art. Thus Solomon's temple, the work of Phoenicians,
seems to have been in its plan Egyptian, but Assyrian in plastic decoration.'39
Moreover, their extensive trade could not fail to develop the industrial arts.
Solomon ordered rare objects of Hiram, king of Tyre, and gave hire to his
servants, who executed them according to all that Hiram appointed.'40 Had
we records of the business relations of this ancient people, we should doubt-
less find, that for other lands likewise they made art-objects for sale.
The excavations of M. Renan on Phoenician soil yielded very few sculp-
tured monuments, but in all these the influence of foreign art was evident.
Egyptian forms were most frequently met with, such as the winged disk,
decorating the entrance to ruined temples, and the sarcophagi in the form
of the Egyptian mummy-cases.h1 These latter are covered by a slab in imi-
tation of the mummy in its shroud, out of which the head, and occasionally
the hands, appear. A number of these Phoenician sarcophagi were discovered
on various sites, and are now in the Louvre. One is executed in the stone
of the country ; but the remainder are in marble, which must have been im-
ported for the purpose. Sarcophagi of the same style have been discovered on
many different sites where Phoenicians settled, as in Cyprus, Sicily, Malta,
and Corsica. One, discovered at Palermo, was painted in imitation of cloth,
a strange and meaningless addition to stone, but evidently intended to imitate
the mummy-wraps of Egypt. The rendering of the faces on these sarcophagi
varies ; but the far greater part show the influence of Greek art, and conse-
quently must belong to a comparatively late date, as is also indicated by the
style of the graves where they were discovered.
Half-lions in coarse native stone, which decorated a grave at Amrith, the
ancient Marathos, show a remote resemblance to Assyrian motives, but are
so rudely blocked out, and left so unfinished, that it is difficult to judge of
their artistic affinities (Fig. 59).
On the island of Arados, off the Phoenician coast, M. Renan discovered a
very characteristic and interesting subject, a part of which is given in Fig. 60.
Here, carved in very low relief, are two winged griffins, standing, one on each
side of a sacred tree, and tasting, as it seems, of its fruit. This tree is made
up entirely of motives borrowed from Egypt; and its spreading part is re-
peated in symmetrical regularity above this griffin relief, in imitation, as it
were, of rich hangings. The forms of these griffins, as Furtwangler's com-
parison has shown, are the same as those decorating utensils and ornaments
on Egyptian monuments of as early an age as that of Thothmes III.1**2 From
the hieroglyphics, however, accompanying such representations in Egypt, it
seems clear that the vessels ornamented with this griffin with closed beak
were the work of Phoenicians imported into Egypt. These griffins re-appear