Phoenician Art Particularly Was Among the Most Sought
The art of the ancient Phoenicians, which flourished between the 19th and 4th centuries BCE, was exported throughout Mesopotamia and the ancient Mediterranean. Best known for their work on modest decorative objects, Phoenician artists skillfully blended influences from neighbouring cultures to produce a unique creative heritage that has only relatively recently been brought out of the shadow of a wider Syrian art history. Intricately carved ivory panels, exquisite metal bowls, and fine colourful glassware are but some of the surviving fine art pieces from one of history's most neglected and forgotten cultures.
Artistic Influences
Phoenician art was influenced by that of its neighbours – Arab republic of egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the Aegean islands – with whom it had frequent contact through trade. The influence may exist best seen in specific materials, for example, Aegean influence is most often seen in Phoenician pottery, Mesopotamian and Ugarit in metal work, and Egyptian in ivory work. Iconography, the clothing of figures, and the palm, lotus, and djed colonnade motifs, for example, were borrowed from these contemporary cultures.
Another indicate of note is that Phoenician artists, unlike their contemporaries elsewhere, continued Statuary Age traditions long into the Fe Historic period; a fact which tin can make the authentic dating of certain works of art extremely difficult. Phoenician artists seem to have largely worked with ornamental objects, especially ivory plaques, seals, jewels, glassware, and metal bowls. These objects were exported or even fabricated by Phoenician craftsman living in foreign cities and colonies; such was the appreciation of their skills and the finished product.
Decorative palmettes, sphinxes, Lions, winged-solar disks, & column motifs are often used in Phoenician art.
Phoenician Sculpture
Surviving examples of large-calibration Phoenician sculpture in stone are few and far between, probably because any stone worthy of sculpture had to be imported and so the artform was not as popular every bit in other cultures. One notable slice is the torso from Sarafand (Sarepta) which dates to the 6th century BCE and depicts a male in pleated brim and belt, wearing a crescent moon pendant. Stone relief carvings include the of import aedicule (minor shrine) from Sidon which represents a monument-type much-copied by subsequently Carthaginian sculptors. It has two columns creating a central space in which sabbatum ii sphinxes and is topped by a winged sunday disk. This and other types of grave markers and stelae were a popular medium for Phoenician sculptors. Decorative palmettes, sphinxes, winged-solar disks, and column motifs are often used in such Phoenician relief sculpture. Stone sculptures were originally painted in bright colours but commonly sparingly in order to pick out features and specific details.
The 9th-sixth-century BCE stele from Amrit is an interesting example of the Phoenician artist mixing influences every bit the male person figure wears an Egyptian skirt and headgear while the panthera leo walks on stones representing a mountain, a mutual feature of Assyrian fine art. The man is typical of most Phoenician figures in all art forms – viewed from the side, both anxiety are flat on the ground, artillery either hang at the sides or one arm is aptitude to concur an object, and the face stares impassively forward.
Sarcophagus of Ahiram
Finally, perhaps the most outstanding piece which survives from Phoenician sculpture is the 13th-12th-century BCE stone sarcophagus of Male monarch Ahiram of Byblos. The rectangular coffin is surrounded by a frieze of lotus buds and flowers, has crouching lions protruding from each base corner, and carries relief scenes of a procession and seated effigy, perhaps Ahiram himself, and mourning women.
Bronze figurines up to 20 cm tall take been much better survivors than larger-scale works but these are ofttimes difficult to distinguish from those produced in other Syrian cultures. They are generally crude in execution only have individualistic features. Several are from Aleppo and date to the 9th and 8th century BCE. Female person figures are more mutual and typically wearable a long tunic. Male person figurines often have one arm raised and wear a conical hat. Some statuettes, such as those found at the Temple of Obelisks at Byblos, were covered in gold leafage.
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Phoenician Ivories
Phoenician ivory plaques have been found in Mesopotamian cities (especially Nimrud), the Greek islands, and primal Italian republic. Just a very few have been discovered at Phoenician sites but those exported are identified by the incision of Phoenician messages and ended upwardly where they did because the Phoenicians traded them, gave them as tribute (or were war booty in the case of Assyria), or produced them on location in resident workshops. The plaques were used as ornament for walls, altars, incense burners, and items of furniture. The earliest engagement to the 9th century BCE and most are rectangular, carved in loftier relief, sometimes with gaps carved right through the slice. Lions, sphinxes, a winged-goddess, and a woman at a window are the most mutual subjects. Equally with relief sculpture in stone, they brandish influences from both Egypt and Assyria.
Lioness Devouring a Boy, Phoenician Ivory Console
Precious Metal Bowls
Phoenician artists were known in antiquity for their fine metalwork, famously, Achilles presents a beautiful silver crater from Phoenician Sidon as a prize for the funeral games of Patroclus in Homer'southward Iliad. Another case is Hiram of Tyre who was employed past Solomon to create two huge decorated bronze pillars and a 4.5-metre diameter bronze basin with groups of oxen as feet to beautify his temple at Jerusalem. On a more pocket-sized scale, Phoenician artists fabricated highly crafted bowls made from bronze, silverish, and aureate. Produced during the 8th and 7th century BCE, surviving examples have been plant every bit far afield as Nimrud, Delphi, and Salerno in Italy. Many examples carry Phoenician inscriptions, profoundly helping to identify the origin of these highly transportable goods.
The subject matter of the embossed reliefs on these bowls is typical of the Phoenician tradition of mixing cultural influences from Mesopotamia, Greece, and Arab republic of egypt into a single object. A central medallion is mutual on the interior, as are concentric bands of decoration. Geometrical and floral motifs prevail but, again, sphinxes, animals, and homo figures besides appear. To describe but one example, a bronze bowl institute at Olympia has an 8-pointed star and rosettes in the fundamental medallion. Inside two decorative bands runs a frieze of scenes where figures play music, perform religious ceremonies, and ane effigy kills a griffin. Each scene is divided by a nude standing female figure, probably a goddess. The bowl is typical of Phoenician art with a mix of influences merely adapted and made highly decorative.
Phoenician Bronze Basin From Nimrud
Other Minor Arts
Phoenician cities were bully exporters of glassware, and then much so that the ancients (incorrectly) attributed its invention to them. The Phoenicians actually learnt the techniques from the Egyptians but were able to meliorate them to produce fine transparent glass. Despite this, artists seem to have preferred working with opaque coloured glass (which has the appearance of ceramic) to produce bottles, jars and bowls. The most mutual shape was the alabastron and amphora form but in miniature and used for perfumes. The most mutual class of decoration is stripes of blues (from cobalt or copper) and yellows (from fe oxide), punctuated by zig-zags.
Phoenician Glassware
Terracotta figurines (specially females) were produced, rather archaic in execution, often lavishly painted, and establish mostly in grave contexts. Pottery, unfortunately, suffered from a lack of proficient clay. A common form was jugs, which normally have a lip, and the finest are fabricated with a red-burnished finish. Few vessels carry any decoration, and if then, it is only achieved via incised simple geometric shapes and lines.
Phoenician artists carved seals, specially scarab seals from semi-precious stones where the base is incised with names and decorative devices. Not merely used as seals they were besides carried as amulets and worn as rings and pendants. Again sphinxes, winged deities, and solar disks are common. Finally, jewellery was also produced, often in gilt or glass, and finds include necklaces, bracelets, pectorals, pins, earrings, and medallions. Some of the gilt examples have repoussé decoration. Agate, onyx, and crystal were also used to produce beads for jewellery whilst minor circular glass plaques were pierced with holes and then that they might be sewn onto clothing.
Phoenician Scarab Seal
Conclusion
Phoenician art spread to its colonies throughout the Mediterranean from the 8th century BCE and none more so than at the most successful Phoenician off-shoot: Carthage. Artists there were strongly influenced by and perpetuated Phoenician styles and field of study affair upwards to the 2nd century BCE. Meanwhile, with the ascension of Greece from the 5th century BCE, Phoenician fine art in the homeland became increasingly Hellenized equally it continued its eclectic path towards mixed forms, which led to such oddities every bit Egyptian anthropoid sarcophagi with very Greek-looking faces carved on their exteriors. Long famous as traders and sailors, the Phoenicians, so, are slowly, as more and more of their art is discovered and known pieces are correctly attributed, gaining wider recognition equally having been capable of producing only every bit fine fine art pieces every bit their contemporaries in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
This commodity has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to bookish standards prior to publication.
Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/Phoenician_Art/
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