Phoenician painting was not, like Egyptian, displayed upon the walls of temples, nor was it, like Greek, the production of actual pictures for the decoration of houses. It was employed to a certain extent on statues, not so as to cover the entire figure, but with delicacy and discretion, for the marking out of certain details, and the emphasising of certain parts of the design.[7120] The hair and beard were often painted a brownish red; the pupil of the eye was marked by means of colour; and robes had often a border of red or blue. Statuettes were tinted more generally, whole vestments being sometimes coloured red or green,[7121] and a gay effect being produced, which is said to be agreeable and harmonious.[7122] But the nearest approach to painting proper which was made by the Phoenicians was upon their vessels in clay, in terra-cotta, and in alabaster. Here, though, the ornamentation was sometimes merely by patterns or bands,[7123] there were occasionally real attempts to depict animal and human forms, which, if not very successful, still possess considerable interest. The noble amphora from Curium, figured by Di Cesnola,[7124] contains above forty representations of horses, and nearly as many of birds. The shape of the horse is exceedingly conventional, the whole form being attenuated in the highest degree; but the animal is drawn with spirit, and the departure from nature is clearly intentional. In the animals that are pasturing, the general attitude is well seized; the movement is exactly that of the horse when he stretches his neck to reach and crop the grass.[7125] In the birds there is equal spirit and greater truth to nature: they are in various attitudes, preening their feathers, pecking the ground, standing with head erect in the usual way. Other vases contain figures of cows, goats, stags, fish and birds of various kinds, while one has an attempt at a hippopotamus. The attempts to represent the human form are certainly not happy; they remind us of the more ambitious efforts of Chinese and Japanese art. CHAPTER VIII--INDUSTRIAL ART AND MANUFACTURES Phoenician textile fabrics, embroidered or dyed--Account of the chief Phoenician dye--Mollusks from which the purple was obtained--Mode of obtaining them--Mode of procuring the dye from them--Process of dyeing--Variety of the tints-- Manufacture of glass--Story of its invention--Three kinds of Phoenician glass--1. Transparent colourless glass--2. Semi- transparent coloured glass--3. Opaque glass, much like porcelain--Description of objects in glass--Methods pursued in the manufacture--Phoenician ceramic art--Earliest specimens--Vases with geometrical designs--Incised patterning--Later efforts--Use of enamel--Great amphora of Curium--Phoenician ceramic art disappointing--Ordinary metallurgy--Implements--Weapons--Toilet articles--Lamp- stands and tripods--Works in iron and lead.