prove them to have been similar, in both subject and design, to those of
Nineveh; they represented cherubim, palms (the so-called tree of life),
and floral wreaths. It was only in the cherubim and in the oxen bearing
the molten sea that the exercise of sculpture in the full round was at
all permitted, and these subjects did not greatly encourage the artistic
study of nature. The cherubim stood in the holy of holies as guardians
of the ark of the covenant. They were independent colossal figures,
carved of olive-wood and overlaid with beaten gold. They were no longer,
as in the Mosaic tabernacle, upon the lid of the ark--the mercy-seat--in
a recumbent or sitting position, but stood at either side of the holy
coffer, and were without doubt greatly different in style from their
predecessors. In the consideration of the cherubim of the tabernacle,
the similarity of these works to Assyrian parallels was denied, for the
Israelites, immediately after the exodus, were naturally acquainted
alone with the artistic traditions of Egypt; but this was by no means
the case in the time of Solomon, when we have to deal with Phœnician
styles,--that is to say, with a combination of various manners of
artistic conception and expression. The cherubim of Solomon may fairly
be assumed to have in the main resembled the monstrous guardians of
Assyrian palaces; the chief deviation from the cherubim of Nineveh was
that their wings were not folded closely, but were outstretched as if
for flight, so that the tips of their feathers touched together over the
ark of the sanctuary, and extended to the side walls of the holy of
holies, measuring ten cubits in entire span. The ark of the covenant
itself and the other vessels of the temple were either overlaid with
gold or were of the solid metal. The altar of incense, the shew-bread
table, and the seven-armed candlestick remained as they had been in the
tabernacle; to them were added, besides many less important utensils,
ten further lamp-holders of gold. As the beaten metal not only extended
over all the carved walls of wooden sheathing, but even covered the
horizontal ceiling, the eye saw nothing but gold--a decoration which the
many-flamed candlesticks must have rendered particularly brilliant, but
which was eminently barbaric, as the metal was probably not enlivened by
colored enamels. It is in questionable taste, even in the most prominent
members of an architectural composition, to outbid the artistic
expression of a work by employing for it a material of too striking
intrinsic value; but it is wholly condemnable to paralyze the
concentrating effect, which is always attained by the moderate use of a
very bright and valuable material, by its universal employment, and thus
to lose the precious character of the centre through the attempted
magnificence of the whole.
As is well known, Solomon’s Temple was destroyed at the command of the
Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, in 587 B.C. The attempt to rebuild it
was not entirely successful until Cyrus ended the Babylonian exile, and
not only permitted the building to proceed, but even returned the sacred
utensils, which had been carried off as booty, and kept in the Temple of
Bel. This reconstruction, named, after the ruler, Zerubbabel, was not
completed until after forty-six years, when, under Darius, all the
difficulties in the way of its prosecution were overcome. There is
reason for supposing that the influence of Persia made itself felt upon
the style of the new work, but nothing of importance to the history of
art is directly known concerning it. The magnificent restoration of
Herod, commenced in 16 or 15 B.C., was executed in ten years, to be
destroyed within a century by Titus, so that, literally, not one stone
remained upon the other. The remodelled temple is not important to the
history of Phœnician-Israelitic art; though the original plan and
arrangement were in the main preserved, its style became a debasement of
the Greek and Roman orders. The gigantic platform, the site of the
building with which so many remarkable events are connected, will always
continue to be of peculiar interest in the history of the world’s
development.
The description of Solomon’s palace given by the Scriptures is too vague
to convey any adequate conception of it. It was a building extended by
columns and provided with an upper story: the shafts were of cedar-wood;
their form is not mentioned. The walls were of stone, hewn
rectangularly, as might be expected from the similar masonry of the
temple. The cedar beams of the ceiling must be supposed, agreeably to
Solomon’s preference for costly materials, to have been overlaid with
gold. There is nothing in these descriptions to suggest Persian
arrangement or details, which did not develop from Assyrian methods of
building until four centuries later. As the Phœnician architecture of
this epoch can be compared to that of no younger land than Mesopotamia,
and as the plans of the known Assyrian palaces are provided with no
halls of columns, it is natural to seek for the origin of the hypostyle
disposition in Egyptian elements, which, in other respects, take so
important a place in the development of Israelitic art. Buildings of
wood overlaid with metal are, on the other hand, peculiarly
characteristic of the Syrian coast.
All this magnificence has totally disappeared, and it would be natural
to expect that, as in other parts of Western Asia, the rock-cut tombs in
the vicinity of Jerusalem, preserved by their indestructibility, would
give the most direct and trustworthy information concerning the
Phœnician-Israelitic style. But the more ancient of these
monuments--those erected before the time of the Seleucidæ--are of such
extreme simplicity that, from lack of detail, they convey no
understanding of Phœnician columns and entablatures, nor, indeed, of
any characteristic architectural forms. A simple stairway leads to the
smaller grotto graves, which, excavated in the cliff, were once closed
by slabs of stones. Their plan is generally square, the ceiling cut to
the form of a flat barrel-vault. In the larger family sepulchres the
burial-chambers are grouped around an antechamber, the bodies in them
being placed upon stone benches or pushed into coffin-like niches. When
the entrance is at all architecturally characterized upon the exterior,
which is of comparatively rare occurrence, it displays the heavy
Egyptian scotia and roundlet (_Fig._ 104), or a simple framing with a
gable and a ridge acroterium of double volutes, like the rock-cut tombs
of Phrygia. (_Fig._ 105.) Where there is carved foliage in the gables
and friezes, as upon the so-called tombs of the judges and kings, these
are the conventional traces of a later period, though these ornaments
frequently retain in design and execution the peculiar dry angularity
characteristic of the imitation of beaten metal which is so universal in
Phœnicia.
[Illustration: Fig. 104.--Rock-cut Tomb of Siloam.]
[Illustration: Fig. 105.--Rock-cut Tomb of Hinnom.]
The influence of Greece and Rome is distinctly betrayed in the so-called
Tomb of Jacob, the pretended sepulchres of the kings, and the tombs
attributed, without reason, to Absalom and Zachariah. These monuments,
some of which have been cut entirely from the native rock, are
ornamented by Doric friezes with Roman disks in the metopes, and by
Doric and Ionic columns and engaged shafts, which reproduced the debased
forms which characterize the treatment of Greek architecture under the
Romans. Yet in all this there are still traces of national
peculiarities. At times vegetable ornaments, grapes and grape-leaves,
pomegranates, ivy, laurel, and acorns fill the tympanon and the frieze,
interrupted by the triglyphs. The general form of the two last-named
tombs is peculiar. That of Zachariah is a cube of a little over 5 m. on
the side; that of Absalom of almost 7 m. They are ornamented by
pilasters and debased Ionic engaged shafts, and have heavy cornices of
the Egyptian roundlet and scotia, to which is added, upon the Tomb of
Absalom, a late Doric frieze. The former is concluded by a pyramid, 3.6
m. high, cut also from the native rock, a termination which gives to the
general form a certain similarity to the Tomb of Amrith known as the
Snail-tower. The latter supports upon the cube a smaller and much lower
mass of masonry, built of quarried stones, and bearing upon a doubly
stepped cylindrical base a cone of concave outline, which terminates, at
a height of 13.5 m. above the ground, in a clumsy, tulip-like flower.
The entrance to the burial-chamber cut in the rock substructure of
Absalom’s tomb has been broken in above the scotia cornice; the traces
of nails upon the walls of the small space point to the customary
sheathing of metal. Notwithstanding such isolated reminiscences of
indigenous--that is to say, Phœnician--manners of building, it is
impossible to agree with several noted authorities in recognizing, in
the Doric and Ionic details which appear combined with them,
predecessors and models of the Hellenic development of these styles.
Such prototypes should least be sought among a people who, possessing no
art of their own, did but borrow from their neighbors. And, moreover,
these forms appear by no means to be primitive attempts, but clearly
exhibit the lifelessness and debasement of the latest period of Greek
architectural history. These monuments may safely be ascribed to the
last two centuries B.C. Although the Corinthian order almost entirely
superseded the older styles in Italy during the time of the Cæsars,
these provincial Doric and Ionic forms may still be assumed to date
rather from the later than from the earlier half of this period.
[Illustration: Fig. 106.--Tomb at Paphos in Cyprus.]
Palestine, in the history of art, may be regarded as a domain of
Phœnicia, and the same thing may be said of Cyprus and of Carthage.
All the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, lying as it did between the
great powers of civilization in the valley of the Nile and the plain of
the Euphrates and Tigris, seemed destined by nature, as we have seen, to
combine the artistic peculiarities of Egypt and Assyria. Cyprus, in a
somewhat similar position, shared the Phœnician civilization and was
also exposed to the influence of the Greeks, especially to that of the
Dorians, who had founded colonies upon the southern islands of the
Ægean, and who early possessed a stronghold in Crete. It is therefore
not surprising that upon the rock-cut tombs of Cyprus the Doric style of
architecture was not restricted to the late and debased forms found upon
the tombs near Jerusalem, but may occasionally be met with in a very
primitive state of development. An instance of this is offered by a tomb
near Paphos. (_Fig._ 106.) In general, the position of the island
exposed it more to the influence of Egypt than of Mesopotamia; it is not
evident in how marked a degree this was felt. Of the chief Phœnician
sanctuary upon Cyprus--the Temple of Astarte at Paphos--there exist only
insufficient representations upon coins and upon an engraved gem of the
Museo Pio-Clementino. These prove no more than that, within a circular
enclosure of lattice-work, there stood a tall structure towering above
low side-buildings, which were supported, like porticos, upon columns.
Two Egyptian shafts appear to have been placed before the entrance,
without function as supports, and, like Jachin and Boaz, without
strictly architectural purpose. Still less is known of the temples of
Amathus and Golgoi. It is hardly probable that the remains of a building
discovered by General Cesnola in the village of Atienu, near the present
port of Larnaka (the Biblical Chitim and Greek Kition) are those of the
world-famed Temple of Aphrodite at Golgoi. The structure seems rather to
have been a treasure-house, in some way connected with the great temple,
which once contained, with the votive statues there discovered, other
objects belonging to the temenos. The oblong plan with irregular
entrances, the bareness of its walls, and especially the carelessly
arranged pedestals which filled the space within, seem to point to its
original destination as that of a magazine. The only objects of
architectural interest discovered in these remains are the columns which
flank the doors, in a position corresponding to that of the columns of
the Mosaic tabernacle. The bases, found in position, are channelled like
those of Persia. The shafts and capitals are not preserved. The form of
the latter may perhaps be surmised from a comparison of fragments in the
Cesnola collection (_Fig._ 107), analogous to the capitals of Mashnaka,
to the double spirals of Assyrian architecture, and to the descriptions
given of the lily-capitals of Solomon’s Temple.
[Illustration: Fig. 107.--Cyprian Pilaster Capitals.]
Cesnola’s discoveries upon Cyprus are more important in sculptural than
in architectural respects, and are worthy to rank with those of Botta,
Layard, and Schliemann. The chief works are limestone statues of various
sizes. To these are added, from the investigations of other ruins,
doubtless of tombs, a great number of minor articles: terra-cotta
figures, vases and lamps, and various objects of glass, metal, etc.
These works are easily divided into two great groups, each of peculiar
style, with which the inscriptions that have been discovered agree in
general character and in relative number. Among the eighty-five
inscriptions found up to 1870, thirty-three are Greek, twenty
Phœnician, and thirty-two Cyprian. The styles of Phœnician and
Cyprian sculpture resemble each other far more closely than did the
languages of those countries, so that in the comparative rarity of
examples it is difficult to distinguish the origin of these works. They
show a kind of compromise between Egyptian, Syrian (Assyrian), and early
Greek methods--a combination agreeing with the geographical position of
the island, and with the descent and history of its inhabitants. All
Cyprian sculpture shows, in so far as it is not influenced by a
reflection of the later Greek and Roman forms, the Phœnician style
which has been described as developed from beaten metal-work; this is
evident even in the stone carvings. (_Figs._ 108 and 109.)
[Illustration: Fig. 108.--Votive Figure from Cyprus]
The destruction of Carthage is as famous for its completeness as that of
Jerusalem, which, indeed, it resembled in other respects, and it is
natural that but few traces of this magnificent Queen of the Sea should
have been preserved. Recent French and English investigations under
Bente and Davis describe the considerable remains of the fortification
walls of the Byrsa, built of colossal blocks of tufa. Their great
thickness, 10 m., permitted the formation of semicircular chambers in
three superposed stories, which, being accessible from within, served as
casemates and magazines. The numerous rock-cut tombs are, as in
Phœnicia, provided with steps from above, and form an oblong crypt,
about which the deep niches for the reception of bodies are grouped.
The remains of barbaric temples upon Malta and the neighboring islands
are of subordinate importance, if indeed they are to be mentioned at
all, in the consideration of Phœnician art. The double temple upon
Gozo is the most important of them. It consists of two adjoining spaces,
each concluded by a semicircular apse, having upon both sides similar
niches, so that the entire enclosure appears as a combination of apses
around an oblong. The pavement is partly of rectangular blocks, so
stepped as to show an interior division; but the Cyclopean masonry of
the walls is so rough that, in its entire lack of ornamental treatment,
the structure has but little interest for the history of art, and
permits no conclusions concerning Phœnician architecture, which
elsewhere produced such incomparable masonry of hewn stones.
[Illustration: Fig. 109.--Cyprian Head.]
The funeral monuments of the remaining Punic lands, of the Balearic
Isles, and notably of Sardinia, though of greater artistic value, are
fully as uncertain in their origin. Their form is at times like that of
the monuments of Amrith; yet they may very possibly be of Etruscan
derivation, for, apart from their resemblance to the tombs of Etruria,
they are almost exclusively upon the eastern coast of Sardinia, the side
turned towards Italy, while the Phœnicians would more naturally have
come in contact with the western part of the island.
[Illustration: Fig. 110.--Rock-cut Tomb at Antiphellos.]
The most advanced outpost of the extended civilization of Phœnicia
was Asia Minor. Under the dominion of the Seleucidæ and of the Romans,
the influence of Greek art was so felt upon the Syrian coast, and even
as far as the banks of the Tigris, that purely national works of
architecture and sculpture are comparatively rare. But this influence
was doubly great in the land of which, from the earliest times, the
Ionians had possessed the seaboard, and where they had founded a number
of flourishing cities which had attained to a degree of prosperity and
culture not less than that of their relatives upon the peninsula of the
Peloponnesos. Yet, although Ionian art bore some of its finest fruit
upon Asiatic soil, and from roots which may partly be traced back to
Mesopotamia, this can be historically treated only in connection with
the civilization of Greece and its common origin and development.
Hellenic Asia Minor and the countries under its influence--that is to
say, the coasts and islands of the Ægean, Propontis and Pontus--cannot
be separately considered. All the sculpture of these regions must
therefore be reserved for a later page; but there are a few
architectural monuments of the southern coast and of the interior which
require our present attention as being peculiarly national. Yet even in
these territories, divided according to their ancient population into
Lycia, Phrygia, and Lydia, all the monumental architecture was greatly
affected by the long Asiatic sway of the Diadochi, and by the military
power of Rome. The temples and public edifices gave up their national
peculiarities for manners of building characteristic of Greece and Rome.
It was only in the tombs that original conceptions retained a stubborn
hold. These, when cut in the rock, became imitations of the dwellings of
the country. Types of house construction were represented which had been
determined by the climatic necessities and by different building
materials of each province. By their massive simplicity and by the
popular consideration that a changeless dwelling best suited the quiet
repose of the dead, the rock-cut tombs retained their primitive
peculiarities without sensible alteration, being exposed only to
unimportant modifications. Little reference was made in them to the
advance of artistic or constructional methods from age to age. Though we
have to deal exclusively with the tombs of the country, they allow us
to draw conclusions concerning the appearance of other buildings,
whether temples or dwellings, which they had taken as their models.
[Illustration: Fig. 111.--Rock-cut Tomb at Antiphellos.]
[Illustration: Fig. 112.--Rock-cut Tomb at Myra.]
Next to the Phœnician coast, and opposite Phœnician Cyprus, lies
Lycia, embracing the greater part of the southern sea-line of Asia
Minor. It calls for chief consideration because of its almost numberless
tombs, some of which are admirably preserved, and because of their
instructive variety. Entire cliffs, like the Necropolis of Myra, shown
in _Fig._ 93 at the head of this section, are literally covered with
such monumental façades, picturesquely grouped according to the natural
configuration of the rock. The greater number are excavated grottoes,
the fronts of which are careful imitations of timbered houses. They
might be called log-house tombs if other than the roof beams were of
unsquared trunks. The interstices between the framing, when not
remaining open as an entrance, are closed by panels. The individuality
of these monuments is as marked as could have been possible among the
dwellings of Lycian mountaineers, whose wealth was not great, and whose
architectural demands did not much vary. An exact imitation of the
ingenious carpentry is cut in the rock down to the smallest detail: the
stiles of the panelling, the round unhewn timbers of the roof, the
clamping and dovetailing of the beams, and the primitive tree-nails with
which these are secured are shown with the greatest distinctness. The
appearance of the whole, when intact, must have resembled a petrified
village. These groups of tombs are among the most curious and striking
remains of antiquity. The attempt was made by several races of early
civilization to prepare a funeral-chamber which should resemble as
closely as possible the dwellings inhabited during life; but this
intention was not elsewhere so thoroughly carried out, and never
resulted in so piquant a contradiction to the material in which it was
executed. The native rock was made completely to deny its nature, and to
present the image of a distinctively wooden construction. Upon abrupt
cliffs this was usually restricted to a façade, which at times was very
simple, but quite characteristic, as in a tomb at Antiphellos (_Fig._
110), where the wooden framing underneath the flat projecting roof forms
two windows, left open as entrances to the cavern. A somewhat more
complicated example is shown by another tomb of this site (_Fig._ 111),
which is especially remarkable on account of the carefully imitated
coping of the cross-beams. In this case only one of the door and window
panels is open, and a gabled roof appears, which seems to have been
customary in Asia Minor, and to some degree in Phœnicia. The framing
of an interior or of side walls is also shown by the stone imitation, as
in the case of a fine example at Myra (_Fig._ 112), which seems to
illustrate the utmost limit of the style. But here the contradiction
between the form and the material is so glaring that the curious
elegance of the result does not redeem it. The repeating of wooden
constructions in stone without any modification--which is at first
sight, and in less extent, pleasing and piquant--has here become
disagreeably obtrusive. This is still more striking upon the rarer
monumental sarcophagi at Phellos and Myra, where the block-house is
carved in the full round from the native rock. These works represent the
wooden model upon all four sides, so completely and conscientiously that
it would be possible, by their aid, to reconstruct the dwelling-house of
a Lycian mountaineer in wood--to repeat from such a petrified copy the
original, though its frail materials perished more than twenty centuries
ago. It is curious how greatly the present huts of the country resemble
their antique predecessors.
[Illustration: Fig. 113.--So-called Monument of the Harpies at Xanthos.]
Near these tombs, in some instances even connected with them, though
usually independent, stand upright monuments of the nature of obelisks,
but with an upper member characteristic of Lycia. In place of the
pyramidal point of Egypt, or of the hemispherical or stepped termination
of Phœnicia and Assyria, there is here a cornice of projecting slabs,
upon which rests a small but comparatively high block. The most
important example is that known as the Monument of the Harpies (_Fig._
113), now in considerable part transported to the Lycian Hall of the
British Museum. It consisted of a gigantic monolith bearing a small
burial-chamber, the enclosing slabs of which were ornamented by the
famous reliefs, so important in the history of Greek sculpture.