Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/214

i go HISTORY OF ART IN PHCENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. ousted the Asiatic tiara in Cyprus, at least when certain rites had to be accomplished. In that case those heads crowned with leaves from the olive, the oak, and the laurel, and sometimes with narcissus flowers, which are so numerous in the Louvre, may have once belonged to statues of priests. The influence of Greek art is more or less manifest throughout the series. In one or two frag- ments the true Cypriot origin is betrayed only by slight details which might easily escape a careless eye. Look at the head here figured, one of the most refined productions of Cypriot sculpture (Fig. 128). If we except the substance in which it is cut, there is nothing about it which might not be taken for Greek at first sight ; FlG. 127. Clay figure with conical base. Height 7 inches. Louvre. From Heuzey. the shapes of the nose and eyes, the smile which raises the corners of the mouth, the careful and elegant workmanship of the hair and beard, all remind us of the slightly mannered archaic school to which are ascribed such things as the bust called Jupiter Trophonius. But if we look a little more closely we shall find the true nation- ality of the work betraying itself in certain minor details, such as the close, plaited cap of hair, the absence of a moustache, and the beard completely disengaged from the throat. The artist may have learnt his trade in Greece, but he remained a Cypriot. When we attempt to classify the statues which have migrated from the temples of Idalion and Golgos to fill the Metropolitan