page_title: Phoenicia
section_title: Art
hierarchical_section_title: Phoenicia / Society and culture / Art
caption_attribution_description: English: National Museum of Beirut – Byblos figurine
context_page_description: Phoenicia was an ancient Semitic-speaking thalassocratic civilization that originated in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, specifically modern Lebanon. It was concentrated along the coast of Lebanon and included some coastal areas of Syria and northern Palestine reaching as far north as Arwad and as far south as Acre and possibly Gaza. At its height between 1100 and 200 BC, Phoenician civilization spread across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus to the Iberian Peninsula.
  The term Phoenicia is an exonym originating from ancient Greek that most likely described Tyrian purple, a major export of Canaanite port towns; it did not correspond precisely to Phoenician culture or society as it would have been understood natively. Scholars thus debate whether the Phoenicians were actually a distinct civilization from the Canaanites and other residents of the Levant.
  The Phoenicians came to prominence following the collapse of most major cultures during the Late Bronze Age. They were renowned in antiquity as adept merchants, expert seafarers, and intrepid explorers.
context_section_description: Phoenician art was largely centered on ornamental objects, particularly jewelry, pottery, glassware, and reliefs. Large sculptures were rare, although figurines were more common, and while typically crude, had individualized features. Phoenician art generally lacked unique characteristics that might distinguish it from its contemporaries; it was highly influenced by the many cultures the Phoenicians traded and interacted with, primarily Egypt, Greece and Assyria. These influences were sometimes reflected in specific categories of art; Greek inspiration was particularly pronounced in pottery, while Egyptian styles were most reflected in ivory work. Phoenicians who were taught on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates gained a wide artistic experience and finally came to create their own art, which was an amalgam of foreign models and perspectives. An 1879 article from The New York Times described Phoenician approach to art as follows:
  He entered into other men's labors and made most of his heritage. The Sphinx of Egypt became Asiatic, and its new form was transplanted to Nineveh on the one side and to Greece on the other. The rosettes and other patterns of the Babylonian cylinders were introduced into the handiwork of Phoenicia, and so passed on to the West, while the hero of the ancient Chaldean epic became first the Tyrian Melkarth, and then the Herakles of Hellas.
  Over time, Egyptian artistic influence became especially prominent, often reflecting the evolving political and economic relations between the two civilization. For example, the famed Ahiram sarcophagus shows little influence from the concurrent 20th and 21st dynasties of Egypt—instead bearing artistic conventions from northern Syria—while subsequent art had Egyptian motifs that reflected the resumption of Phoenician ties with the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt.
  Phoenician art also differed from its contemporaries in its continuance of Bronze Age conventions well into the Iron Age, such as terracotta masks. Based on contemporary accounts, Phoenician artisans were known for their skill with wood, ivory, bronze, and textiles. In the Old Testament, a craftsman from Tyre was commissioned to build and decorate the legendary Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, which "presupposes a well-developed and highly respected craft industry in Phoenicia by the mid-tenth century BC". The Iliad mentions the embroidered robes of Priam’s wife, Hecabe, as "the work of Sidonian women" and describes a mixing bowl of chased silver as "a masterpiece of Sidonian craftsmanship." The Assyrians appeared to have valued Phoenician ivory work in particular, collecting vast quantities in their palaces.
  The Phoenician artistic tradition appears to have been indelibly tied to its people's commercial interests. The second century historian Philo of Byblos noted that the Phoenician god of craftsmanship, Chousor, was also the inventor of the raft and the first sailor. There are Greek accounts describing the arrival of Phoenician traders bearing "trinkets and baubles." The Phoenicians appeared to have used their knowledge of foreign artistic styles to craft goods that would specifically appeal to certain trading partners, distinguishing not only different cultures but even socioeconomic classes. This is also evidenced in the broad distribution of Phoenician goods, which have been found as west as Spain and Morocco, as north as Russia and as east as Iraq. In fact, much of what is known about Phoenician art is based from excavations outside of Phoenicia proper.
caption: The Byblos figurines, Phoenician statuettes from Byblos; 19–18th century BC; bronze, probably gilded; National Museum of Beirut (Lebanon)
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