Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/59

ANIMALS. 37 expression of his thought were the presence or absence of the beard, the arrangement of the hair and the dress ; these things he varied as the fashions changed and as this or that foreign influence came to modify his art. If our readers wish to convince themselves of this let them compare the eight anthropoid sarcophagi (Vol. I. Figs. 124, 126 130, 133 and 134) figured in our section on sepulchral furniture. If the Phoenicians had been possessed with the slightest desire for personal portraiture, then, if ever, was the time for its gratification ; we know what use the Egyptians made of these tomb-figures. But a glance at all these sarcophagi especially if it be taken in the Louvre, where they lie side by side is enough to show that the workmen who chiselled the heads upon them made no attempt to copy individual peculiarities. They all belong to the Grseco- Phoenician perio'd and all reproduce the same type, a type much more Greek than Semitic. Even where the head is covered with the Egyptian head-dress the profile is Hellenic in its lines. More conclusive proof could scarcely be given of the abstract and conventional character of Phoenician iconography. 4. Animals. The early masters of the Phoenician sculptor and decorator, the artists of Egypt and Assyria, studied animals so much and so carefully that their Syrian pupils could hardly have failed to follow their example. What use did they make of it ? Before we answer this question let us examine their treatment of perhaps the noblest type offered by the animal world, namely that of the lion, the beast which gave a theme for so many fine works to the artists of Thebes and Nineveh. Many sculptured lions have been encountered in Phoenicia. M. Renan found them at several points, at Byblos, at Sidon, at Oum-el-Awamid. 1 The fragment by which he was most deeply impressed is unfortunately much broken ; nothing in fact is left but the fore-legs and a part of the underside of the body (Fig. 33). We believe this to be the oldest of the lion sculptures found by the French savant. The artist seems to have made very good use of his Assyrian models. This is especially noticeable in the 1 Mission de Phenicie, pp. 175, 397, 702.