Phoenician art includes a wide range of mediums that changed over a thousand years, producing works that mixed traditional symbols with new technologies. old Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians made art that people today are familiar with, but in the old Mediterranean world, the Phoenicians were thought to be some of the best artists. People praised craftsmen and women for their skills, especially when it came to colors, fabrics, and ivory. Because the Phoenicians had a monopoly on the expensive purple dye, Phoenician artists could give their work a unique color, and because they could move quickly across the sea, they could easily transport things.
Many historians and writers, including Homer, had great respect for the Phoenicians. They wrote things like, “a mixing bowl of silver, richly wrought; it held six measures, and in beauty it was far the best in all the earth, seeing as Sidonians, skilled in deft handiwork, had wrought it cunningly, and men of the Phoenicians brought it over the murky deep and landed it in harbor.”
Modern artists, on the other hand, are not very happy with the work of the Phoenicians. The main complaint about the Phoenicians is that their art was mostly copied from other cultures and civilizations, with themes, symbols, and images being mixed together and then given to the rest of the Mediterranean. Something very important to note is that many of the stolen symbols were used incorrectly and in places where they didn’t make sense; they were only used because they looked good. Some scholars disagree with this criticism, saying that the fact that many things were put together shows how skilled and creative the Phoenicians were.
In the end, each person can decide for themselves if Phoenician art is unique or worth studying. There aren’t many things that could be used to describe the Phoenician collection as a whole, but Woolmer says it best: “the main thing about Phoenician art is that it is eclectic.” [20] It loved to copy the styles of Egypt, Assyria, Anatolia, and Syria, and it used old symbols in new ways. Because the Phoenicians did this so much, ancient art historians chose to divide Phoenician art into groups based on which civilization the pieces seemed to the most like. At the moment, there are four:
Making Assyrians: During this style, the Phoenicians copied parts of Assyrian and Hittite culture. They often used sphinxes, lions, Assyrian seals, and Assyrian clothing. Religions from Mesopotamia were also present in some ways.
Cypro-Phoenician art is a type of art that can only be found in Cyprus. It is made up of only Assyrian elements, not Egyptian ones as was usual during the wider Mediterranean expansion.
Egyptianizing: A lot of Phoenician art is thought to have been Egyptianized, which means that it copied Egyptian things like sun discs, sphinxes without wings, and Egyptian dress. So many people liked it that Cyprus stood out by sticking to Assyrian culture instead of adopting Egyptian features.
Syrianizing: The Phoenicians copied Syrian art styles and drew people wearing Syrian clothes and faces while still keeping some Egyptian features. The biggest difference between Syrianized Phoenician art and regular Syrian art was that Syrian artists drew people facing forward with clearer faces.
He worked for other people and made the most of what he had. It is thought that the Sphinx from Egypt changed into an Asian shape and was then moved to Nineveh and Greece. Babylonian cylinders had rosettes and other patterns that were used in Phoenician art. These designs then spread to the West. Meanwhile, the hero of an old Chaldean epic became first the Tyrian Melkarth and then the Herakles of Greece.
Most of what scholars know about Phoenician art comes from grave goods, which are things that were buried with their owners.
People gave these gifts to show respect for the dead or to show how rich the buried person was. They could be anything from bowls and plates to jewelry, small statuettes, protective scarabs, mirrors, ivory boxes, razors, and clay masks. Historians think that a big part of artisan work was made for funeral purposes, but many things were also made for their beauty.
Scholars who study Phoenician art have to deal with the fact that many buildings and papyrus records have been lost over time. You can look at the paintings and drawings of other societies, but you can only look at the Phoenicians through the lens of their artifacts. Most of the items were masks made of terracotta, metal items, statues made of ivory and stone, and textiles. Glass and faience were also used a lot by artists. The Phoenicians liked to ship glass as a raw material, but they did keep some to make jewelry and small votives.