DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0147
PHOENICIAN SILVER BOWLS.
115
Egyptian or Assyrian work. Such objects were found in the ruins of Nim-
roud in Assyria in large quantities, and are now in the British Museum. A
few fragments of ivory carving, once evidently used for incrusting some
coarser material, doubtless pieces of wooden furniture (Fig. 61), are strongly
Egyptian in subject and form, but lack altogether the vigor and decision so
admirable in genuine Egyptian works. This mode of using ivory will call
to mind at once the thrones, etc., made for the Jews by the Phoenicians, and
described in the Bible.'43 On Italian soil very many products of this peculiar
mongrel art, in one case accompanied by a Phoenician inscription, have been
found in the older graves, dating, as Helbig has shown, from the seventh cen-
tury B.C.'« Thus, in the celebrated Regulini Galassi tomb at Cervetri, the
so-called Grotta d'Iside at Vulci, in tombs at Veio, Palestrina, Poggio alia
Sala, Sovana, and from the
plain near Salerno, ivory carv-
ings, bronze incrustations, and
bowls of silver and meaner
metal, have been discovered
in large quantities.'45
These bowls of silver and
bronze now form a large fam-
ily, nineteen of them being
known.M6 A group of them
was found at Palestrina in
1876, and the fact that one
bore Phoenician inscriptions
establishes the theory that
their peculiar art is Phoeni-
cian. The technique is a simple one ; the figures being beaten out in the
pliable metal so as to be slightly raised, their surface finished by the graver's
tool.
One of these bowls in silver discovered at Palestrina, but now in the
Museo Kircheriano at Rome, and beautifully preserved, well illustrates the
technique and mongrel forms of this art (Fig. 62). In the centre is a scene
where the long, thin forms, the costumes and hair arrangement, of conqueror
and conquered, call to mind the scenes on Egyptian reliefs ; the hairy dogs
biting the heels of the unhappy fallen, adding an element of brutal fierceness
to the conflict. Outside of this scene prance well-framed horses, used in a
strictly decorative scheme ; each high-stepping steed being the exact repetition
of his neighbor, excepting where a part of a member is carelessly omitted.
Above them, arranged with like regularity, fly birds. But the outer row pre-
sents the most of interest. Here the main part of the circle is occupied with
the hunt of long-horned deer and huge monkeys. We first see hunters, who
Fig. 60. Relief with Griffins from Arados. Louvre.
115
Egyptian or Assyrian work. Such objects were found in the ruins of Nim-
roud in Assyria in large quantities, and are now in the British Museum. A
few fragments of ivory carving, once evidently used for incrusting some
coarser material, doubtless pieces of wooden furniture (Fig. 61), are strongly
Egyptian in subject and form, but lack altogether the vigor and decision so
admirable in genuine Egyptian works. This mode of using ivory will call
to mind at once the thrones, etc., made for the Jews by the Phoenicians, and
described in the Bible.'43 On Italian soil very many products of this peculiar
mongrel art, in one case accompanied by a Phoenician inscription, have been
found in the older graves, dating, as Helbig has shown, from the seventh cen-
tury B.C.'« Thus, in the celebrated Regulini Galassi tomb at Cervetri, the
so-called Grotta d'Iside at Vulci, in tombs at Veio, Palestrina, Poggio alia
Sala, Sovana, and from the
plain near Salerno, ivory carv-
ings, bronze incrustations, and
bowls of silver and meaner
metal, have been discovered
in large quantities.'45
These bowls of silver and
bronze now form a large fam-
ily, nineteen of them being
known.M6 A group of them
was found at Palestrina in
1876, and the fact that one
bore Phoenician inscriptions
establishes the theory that
their peculiar art is Phoeni-
cian. The technique is a simple one ; the figures being beaten out in the
pliable metal so as to be slightly raised, their surface finished by the graver's
tool.
One of these bowls in silver discovered at Palestrina, but now in the
Museo Kircheriano at Rome, and beautifully preserved, well illustrates the
technique and mongrel forms of this art (Fig. 62). In the centre is a scene
where the long, thin forms, the costumes and hair arrangement, of conqueror
and conquered, call to mind the scenes on Egyptian reliefs ; the hairy dogs
biting the heels of the unhappy fallen, adding an element of brutal fierceness
to the conflict. Outside of this scene prance well-framed horses, used in a
strictly decorative scheme ; each high-stepping steed being the exact repetition
of his neighbor, excepting where a part of a member is carelessly omitted.
Above them, arranged with like regularity, fly birds. But the outer row pre-
sents the most of interest. Here the main part of the circle is occupied with
the hunt of long-horned deer and huge monkeys. We first see hunters, who
Fig. 60. Relief with Griffins from Arados. Louvre.