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Show 136 TITE ART OF TilE SHEMITES. We publish some of these bronzes as specimens of the original and unadulterated Shcmitic art. The first, in fig. 22, is a statuette with some Egyptian touches; but Fig. 22. MoLoorr, (Puutky Coll.) the noxt, and fig. 23, are of progressive barbarism-all characterized by the peculiar head-dress in tho shape of a horn, the " exalted horn " of the Scriptures, which, down to the present day, has endured in the natiOIJal ornament of the Druse females. The ugliness of these, no less than of the Sardinian statuettes,-scarcely reconcilable with commonly received ideas about the wealth and display of the merchantprinces of Sidon and Tyre, and the power of Carthage,-ought not to throw a doubt upon their Sbemitic origin; for, according to IIerodotus, n~ ugly and distorted representations were not excluded from among the Phcenician forms of godhead. 11& IllllllODOTUS, III. 87. THE ART OF THE SIIEMITES. 137 Fig. 23. EBHMUN, (Pulszky Colt.) "Winckolman's guess," says Gerhard, in his often quoted essay, "that elegance might have boon tho principal feature of Phoonioian art, is not borne out by tho oxtfmt idols; those aro rude o.nd intondocl to strike terror, like the idols of Mexico. no .... All tho oriental elements in Grook o.nd Etruscan art," he continuos, "formerly attributed to Phoonician influonoo, can bo traced to quito different countries of Asio., first to Candn.ulos nnd Croosus .of Lydin., but if wo ascend to tho source-to Do.bylon and Nineveh. According to tho rcmams of Phoonician monuments, tho mol"it of this no.tion must be restricted to tho clover use of some peculiar materials, for instn.noe, bronzo, gold, and ivory, gln.ss and ~urple: and to their modin.ting o.ssistanoe afforded to tho higher art of inner Asia, by copying tb01r forms, o.ncl by cn.rrying them to tho wost." The Shemites being destitute of higher national art, it is to the Egyptian and Assyrian monuments that we arc ind?bted for the _preservation of the ancient Shemitic cas.t of features, whiCh has rcmamed unchanged for thirty and more ccnturies. 117 We could _not ~a~o recognized thorn in tho works of their own artists, who mthor um-no GERIIARl>, op. cit., p. 17, 21. m Soc oxo.mplos in Types of .Afa11kind, chapter iv. "Physical IIistory of tho Jews." |
