Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/400

362 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. have described, fragments of vessels of other sizes and shapes have very often been found. 1 Although of different size and form all these objects must have come from the same workshops ; their identity of origin is betrayed by many details to which the eye of the archaeologist cannot be blind. Thus the birds which float over the horses are found both in the Palestrina cup and in the silver-gilt crater which was found with it. 2 Cesnola brought some very curious fragments from Cyprus which must have formed part of some great bronze vessel, either a large crater or a lebes. The body has disappeared ; nothing remains but the handles and the circular rim of the mouth. The latter were fixed with nails, some of which may still be traced (Fig. 280). The rim was laid flat round the top of the vase ; on it a skilful hand has chiselled a troop of bulls stampeding before lions (Fig. 279). As for the handles, they were adorned with images of quite a different character. On each there are three pairs of very strange animals indeed. These are lions with a fish-skin on their backs, like the Assyrian Anou. 3 They stand on their hind legs and face each other, holding ewers of very grace- ful shape in their fore-paws. Below them the metal plaque swells into a kind of disk, so as to afford a larger surface for attachment to the body of the vase. On this disk the artist has introduced three bull's heads. In all these metal vessels the handles are carefully made and designed. Sometimes they are ornamented with graceful pal- mettes and with figures of animals, as we see them on that great 1 CESNOLA, Cyprus, pp. 325-330. HELBIG E FABIANI, Annali, 1876; article already quoted ; and Monimenti, vol. x. plates xxxi. xxxi a. xxxii. xxxiii. Also HELBIG E FABIANI, Annali, 1879, Oggefti trovati in una tomba prenestina (seconda serie), pp. 1-23 ; Monimenti, vol. xi. pi. ii. ; GRIFI, Monimenti di Ccere antica, pi. v. and vii. HELBIG (JBullettino, 1879, p. 251) also points out two vases from Chiusi, in Etruria, as belonging to this category ; one has now disappeared, while the other belongs to the museum at Florence. The former was of silver ; the one in the Uffizi is of silver-gilt. Among the things found during the excavations at Salamis, there was a bronze bucket with Egyptian figures upon it (AL. DI CESNOLA, Salaminia, p. 60). In M. LE CLERCQ'S collection there is a fine bronze vase from Paphos. It is a kind of crater. The palmettes on the handles are very like those on the great stone cauldron of the Louvre. On these same handles there are rams very like those on some of the ancient Cypriot money. 2 Monimenti, vol. x. pi. xxxiii. 8 Our Fig. 280 is from a photograph of the best preserved handle ot the two ; the only fragment of the other which remains is shown in Fig. 279.