Page 217 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART two:
THE PERIPHERAL REGIONS
One row of orthostats was found complete and in their original position- they render
the local version of the griffin-demon under a winged disk; then a woman or goddess
uckhng a standing hoy under a palm-tree, a scene ultimately of Egyptian derivation -
Isis and the king or Isis and Horus - but known from Phoenician bronze bowls - «< next
a man gripping a rampant Hon by the head while driving his spear home. The next stone
shows above, two nondescript birds, meant no doubt to be vultures, over a prostrate
animal, while below we seem to meet an inversion of the Mesopotamian theme of die
hero subduing animals; for two lions are apparently getting the better of a man. Next
comes an archer with his game, and, finally, against the lion at the entrance of the gate,
we sec Egyptian Bes with a monkey squatting on either shoulder. In plate 165c we see
a hunter and a stag, and below two butting bulls standing, not on mountains as we would
expect, but on a border of lotus flowers and buds, a design of Egyptian derivation.
Occasionally a group makes a pleasing pattern, two warriors, for instance, with the
crested helmets and round shields also seen in the contemporary art of Greece (Plate
165E);115 the design of the horsemen above is likewise redeemed by their symmetry.
But on the whole the designs are negligible as works of art.
It remains true that the reliefs of Karatepe, like those found on north Syrian sites,
may have fulfilled an important role as transmitters of oriental themes to Greece; but
on the whole Greece derived such subjects, as Syria and Anatolia had done, from the
easily transported products of the minor arts. The north Syrian and Cilician ports
played a part in their diffusion, but its main agents were the Phoenicians, whose reper­
toire is reflected in gross distortion among the sculptures of Karatepe.

Phoenician and Syrian Art

The hallmark of the Phoenicians is the lavish use of bungled Egyptian themes. After the
passing of the Peoples of the Sea the inland cities of Syria drew on the Mesopotamian
repertoire for a renewal of their arts; but the Phoenicians drew on Egypt. This much
is clear, but any further characterization of Phoenician art must be provisional. Sidon
and Tyre have not been excavated. The works which we recognize as Phoenician have
been found in Assyria, Cyprus, Greece, and Etruria - regions of intense artistic activity
liable not only to copy but to modify imported models. In many cases we cannot say
whether ivories or bronzes are Phoenician works or more or less faithful local imita-
tions.116
However, this may be, it is certain that Phoenician and Greek traders carried the pro
ducts of these crafts to the West. The Iliad is explicit on this point,117 and the prevalence
of quasi-Egyptian themes on bronzes and ivories - whether found m the west or in

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