who do not care to arrive at a mutual understanding
in order to produce in common a single work, since
they do not know that it is the conception of a grand
whole which constitutes greatness in art. Hence
the incompleteness of the monuments; there is not a
tomb to which the relations of the deceased have deemed
it fitting to give the finishing touches; there is
everywhere a certain egotism, like that which in later
times prevented the Mussulman monuments from enduring.
A passing pleasure in art does not induce men to finish,
since finishing requires a certain stiffness of will.
In general, the ancient Phoenicians appear to have
had the spirit of sculptors rather than of architects.
They did not construct in great masses, but every one
laboured on his own account. Hence there was no
exact measurement, and no symmetry. Even the
capitals of the columns at Um-el-Awamid are not alike;
in the portions which most evidently correspond the
details are different."[686]
Recent discoveries of Phoenician artistic
remains— Phoenician sculpture—Statues
and busts—Animal forms—Bas-
reliefs—Hercules and Geryon—Scenes
on sarcophagi— Phoenicians metal castings—Jachin
and Boaz—Solomon’s “Molten
Sea”—Solomon’s lavers—Statuettes
in bronze— Embossed work upon cups
and paterae—Cup of Praeneste—
Intaglios on cylinders and gems—Phoenician
painting—Tinted statues—Paintings
on terra-cotta and clay.
Phoenician aesthetic art embraced sculpture, metal-casting,
intaglio, and painting to a small extent. Situated
as the Phoenicians were, in the immediate neighbourhood
of nations which had practised from a remote antiquity
the imitation of natural forms, and brought into contact
by their commercial transactions with others, with
whom art of every kind was in the highest esteem—adroit
moreover with their hands, clever, active, and above
all else practical—it was scarcely possible
that they should not, at an early period in their
existence as a nation, interest themselves in what
they found so widely appreciated, and become themselves
ambitious of producing such works as they saw everywhere
produced, admired, and valued. The mere commercial
instinct would lead them to supply a class of goods
which commanded a high price in the world’s
markets; while it is not to be supposed that they were,
any more than other nations, devoid of those aesthetic
propensities which find a vent in what are commonly
called the “fine arts,” or less susceptible
of that natural pleasure which successful imitation
evokes from all who find themselves capable of it.
Thus, we might have always safely concluded, even
without any material evidence of it, that the Phoenicians
had an art of their own, either original or borrowed;
but we are now able to do more than this. Recent
researches in Phoenicia Proper, in Cyprus, in Sardina,
and elsewhere, have recovered such a mass of Phoenician
artistic remains, that it is possible to form a tolerably
complete idea of the character of their aesthetic art,
of its methods, its aims, and its value.
Print
Word
PDF
