SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION.
| 1810 | ||
| 1799 | 1805 | 1795 |
| 1796 | 519 | 1800 |
PHŒNICIA.
To a practised eye their work is distinguishable from that of other nations; the touch, drawing, execution, and the distinctive character of their subjects render them readily recognizable. Yet the symbolic characters are not entirely distinctive, for they often clearly indicate imitation of Assyrian and Egyptian work and design. For that reason it is often difficult to decide or classify gem-objects found in many of the islands once colonized by them, from the very fact that in design they at times lack originality.
They were a migratory people, and in this brief glance at the whole range of our subject we shall be satisfied with mention of their colony at Tharros, on the island at Sardinia, where the most unquestionably authentic Phœnician Scarabei have been found in excavations made during the last sixty years. They are principally cut on green jasper, and in character resemble Persian designs.
In these times we write our history every day on millions of great pages of white paper. In almost no contingency will future generations have any difficulty of learning who we were, where we came from, how we have formed the master metal—iron—into thousands of implements and instruments, or how they have been employed; being supplied with our ready inscribed history, they can begin where we have left off and profit by our experience.
GREECE.
The earliest specimens of Greek gems bore traces of Egyptian style; they represented objects rather symbolically than by artistic delineation of the beautiful in the human form or in nature. On the box of Cypselus death was represented with crooked legs, beauty and youth by long tresses of hair, power by long hands, swiftness and agility by long feet. Many of the oldest Greek statues were accompanied with the names of the subjects represented, which seems to imply that the artist was conscious of his deficiency, both in character and expression. Yet in time they created single figures and groups in fair marble, whose symmetry and exquisite modelling of the human form command the admiration of all. They are either at rest or displaying the muscles, sinews, and even the passions of athletic men and adorable women.