266 A History of Art in Sardinia and Judaea. exception in favour of the veil of the sanctuary» wrought in purple, blue and red and scarlet, and fine lineii, with winged figures, arabesques, and a lotus- flower border (2 CJwon. iii. 14). We can imagine the curtain to have been one of those webs dyed with the costly purple tint, interwoven with gold» to which the deft fingers of Tyrian women added embroidery in various colours. The second temple had a veil of the same costly fabric, and of no less resplendent hues ; perhaps a tv£tto% Ba/3u&wioç, the gift of Cyrus or some wealthy Jew of Babylon. By one of those freaks of fortune from which the gods themselves are not exempted, this curtain was carried to Olympia by Antiochus Epiphanes, and there may have adorned the temple of Olympus. The reader has now before him our restoration of the temple and its more important pieces ; the impression produced by their image, aided throughout by transliteration of the text, will have led him to agree with us, that the monument as a whole does not recall Assyria or Egypt, but points to Phoenician style and Phoenician methods.
Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/296
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