Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/152

1 32 HISTORY OF ART IN PIKKNICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. was once in all probability a temple. 1 The arms of a throne whose fragments were found on the same spot seem also to have been formed of sphinxes. 2 Elsewhere we find the same creatures chiselled in bas-relief. An alabaster slab from Arvad, on which ^^J^^^^^^J^, fcM^ Fie.. 73. Alaba.-ter slab. Louvre. Height 24^ inches. the carving is very minutely carried out, is an example of this (Fig- 73)- The sphinx is there couchant on a pedestal similar to 1 RENAN, Mission, pp. 701-702, and plates xxxii. i. ; li. k. ; and Ivii. i. 5 M. THOBOIS gives a restoration of this throne (Mission, pi. liii.). We do not reproduce it here because it is, by his own confession, very conjectural, and because the sphinxes of his version are very conventional in form, recalling works of the time of Hadrian rather than the sculptured imitations from the Saite epoch of which M. Renan speaks.