Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/182

1 66 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. A curious thing about this image is that the artisan grafted on it a second which has no relation to the first ; thus he put a bas-relief, bounded by a double strip, on each face of the stone. On the one flank are three objects with long horns apparently belonging to wild goats, and on the other flank two horsemen, and above them two birds on the wing. A hunting scene was clearly intended here. The manipulation is inexpressibly barbarous ; but the situation of the birds is precisely similar to that of numerous instances seen in the bas-reliefs of Assyria and the metal bowls of Phoenicia. 1 It would be difficult to imagine aught more strange than these data, workmanship ruder or clumsier, particularly the horses and their riders. As to the function of the ram, it is easily guessed. He had a pendant, and the pair decorated the threshold ; they were re- gardant, e.g. with heads turned away, and played the part of the huge winged bulls of Assyria, the lions of Comagena (of which several were found in place), and the sphinxes and lions at Eyuk. 2 Thus may be explained the awkward overcrowding, which sins against the canons of good taste. The primitive artist, in his endeavour to enhance the importance and power of his patron, bethought him of no better contrivance than to figure him at his favourite pastime, the pursuit and capture of big game. Both at Nineveh and in Upper Syria, in that Hittite palace, of which the ruins are seen at Sinjerli, the basalt and alabaster casing of the lower part of the walls is covered with scenes descriptive of the main episodes of royal existence. 3 In this instance, the house of the tribal chief was, perhaps, no more than a wooden konak, like that of the Dere Bey at Kumbet (Fig. 83). Two huge stone blocks set up at the gateway were all the Phrygian artist had to hand ; and in his anxiety to do the best he could with them, finding, moreover, no other available space, he carved the hunting scene on the flanks of the ram. 4 1 Hist, of Art, torn. iii. pp. 767, 793. 1 Ibid., torn. iv. pp. 533, 534, Fig. 269. 8 Ibid., pp. 530, 535, 559, 680. 4 Milchhofer see's in this ram a funereal symbol, which he compares with those seen in the bas-reliefs of Caucasus and the tombs of Armenia ( Wilder denkmiiler aus Phrygien und Armenien, Archa. Zeitung, 1883, p. 263); but Armenian presentations of the animal, such as these, are after the Christian era, one bearing the date of A.D. 1578. To try to establish a link between monuments separated by so wide a space in time seems very risky. Our explanation has this in its favour, that it does