Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/76

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

54 HISTORY OF ART IN PHCENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. modelling both of feet and arms is strong and true. The face in its frame of plaited hair is not without elegance, and the figure as a whole is one of the very best things left us by the Phoenician ceramist. Were all these figures imported from Phoenicia or manufactured in the island itself? The latter most likely. No doubt Phoenician moulds were at first used in Sardinia as in Cyprus, but afterwards FIG. 48. Sardinian statuette. Terra-cotta. Height 1 1| inches. British Museum. the models furnished by the mother-country were copied with a freedom which increased as time went on. A minute comparison between Syrian and Sardinian statuettes would certainly confirm this conjecture. Even now, and in spite of scanty materials and frequent breaks in the series, we can see that in these western colonies some types were reproduced much oftener than others ;