Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/67

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SCULPTURE AMONG THE NATIONS IN THE INTERIOR OF SYRIA. 45 discovered a relief in the country of Moab, to the east of the Dead Sea, and made a drawing of it ; thirteen years later the Due de Luynes found the fragment still in the same place ; he purchased it and brought it away, and in 1865 he presented it to the Louvre (Fig. 40). The subject is very like that of the colossal fragment from Sarepta (Fig. 26). It must represent a king of Moab, some FIG. 40. Moabite bas-relief. Height 41 inches. predecessor or successor of Mesha, some prince who, like the contemporary of Rehoboam, worshipped the god Kemosch and made war against Judah and Israel. The material is black basalt. The figure wears a helmet, it is girt with the schenti, it holds a lance, point downwards, in both hands ; a bow hangs from its shoulder. In the lower part of the slab some animal is roughly