DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4856#0016
IO
an Assyrian slabr and of certain figures from Persepolis in the British Museum, on a
bronze statuette" in Sardinia, apparently from the Phoenician Tharros, and in a measure
on coins of Sardinia representing Sardus Pater.3 It may yet be found that these
examples represent the survival of a type of head-gear through a long anterior period.
But for the moment the question is the latest possible date at which it would have
been copied by the Mycenaean artist.
The group of a man slaying a gryphon, which is seen at its best in PI. II, No. 872A,
occurs again on two other ivories more or less destroyed. The better preserved of
the two is given on PI. II, No. 883, the man being remarkable for the helmet
with chin-strap which he wears. It is a subject which appears frequently on the
metal bowls of the Phoenicians, and is found in two instances among the ivories
discovered by Layard in the palace at Nimroud. The date of that palace is given as
850-700 B.C. Among the numerous ivory carvings found on that occasion, and now in
the British Museum, there is a striking mixture of bastard Egyptian and Assyrian designs,
such as is usual in Phoenician art. Hence the ivories have been regularly regarded as
the products of Phoenician craftsmen. It is true that among our Enkomi ivories there
is not this same mixture of Assyrian designs ; but on the other hand there was no lack,
in the tombs of Enkomi generally, of Egyptian scarabs or Assyrian cylinders, some being
apparently bastard, others true.
Among the Nimroud ivories are four panels, on each of which appears a head of a
woman looking out of what appears to be a window with a balustrade in front (Fig. 17).
Fig. 17.
Among our bronzes of Enkomi are four similar designs, one on each side of a square stand
(Fig. 18). On each side are two female heads looking out of a window, reminding us of
passages in the Old Testament such as 2 Samuel vi. 16, where " Michal, Saul's daughter,
looked through a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord "; a
scene which Dante saw represented in relief in Purgatory (x. 68); or Judges v. 28, where
the mother of Sisera looked " out at a window" ; or 2 Kings ix. 30, where Jezebel
"painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window." These and similar
instances in the Biblical narrative compare fittingly with the ivories of Nimroud and
our bronze stand, as illustrations of an Oriental habit still prevalent—that of women
looking out of windows. In a rude fashion we see half-length figures of women at
■ Perrot and Chipiez, ii. p. 521. 2 Bullettino Arch. Sardo, i. p. 97.
3 Perrot and Chipiez, iv. p. 21.
an Assyrian slabr and of certain figures from Persepolis in the British Museum, on a
bronze statuette" in Sardinia, apparently from the Phoenician Tharros, and in a measure
on coins of Sardinia representing Sardus Pater.3 It may yet be found that these
examples represent the survival of a type of head-gear through a long anterior period.
But for the moment the question is the latest possible date at which it would have
been copied by the Mycenaean artist.
The group of a man slaying a gryphon, which is seen at its best in PI. II, No. 872A,
occurs again on two other ivories more or less destroyed. The better preserved of
the two is given on PI. II, No. 883, the man being remarkable for the helmet
with chin-strap which he wears. It is a subject which appears frequently on the
metal bowls of the Phoenicians, and is found in two instances among the ivories
discovered by Layard in the palace at Nimroud. The date of that palace is given as
850-700 B.C. Among the numerous ivory carvings found on that occasion, and now in
the British Museum, there is a striking mixture of bastard Egyptian and Assyrian designs,
such as is usual in Phoenician art. Hence the ivories have been regularly regarded as
the products of Phoenician craftsmen. It is true that among our Enkomi ivories there
is not this same mixture of Assyrian designs ; but on the other hand there was no lack,
in the tombs of Enkomi generally, of Egyptian scarabs or Assyrian cylinders, some being
apparently bastard, others true.
Among the Nimroud ivories are four panels, on each of which appears a head of a
woman looking out of what appears to be a window with a balustrade in front (Fig. 17).
Fig. 17.
Among our bronzes of Enkomi are four similar designs, one on each side of a square stand
(Fig. 18). On each side are two female heads looking out of a window, reminding us of
passages in the Old Testament such as 2 Samuel vi. 16, where " Michal, Saul's daughter,
looked through a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord "; a
scene which Dante saw represented in relief in Purgatory (x. 68); or Judges v. 28, where
the mother of Sisera looked " out at a window" ; or 2 Kings ix. 30, where Jezebel
"painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window." These and similar
instances in the Biblical narrative compare fittingly with the ivories of Nimroud and
our bronze stand, as illustrations of an Oriental habit still prevalent—that of women
looking out of windows. In a rude fashion we see half-length figures of women at
■ Perrot and Chipiez, ii. p. 521. 2 Bullettino Arch. Sardo, i. p. 97.
3 Perrot and Chipiez, iv. p. 21.