Scull, See Skui.i,
Sculpture, Hebrew. By the well-known law (in Exod. XX, 4 sq. ; Dent, iv, 16 sq. ; xxvii, 15 ; comp. Diod. Sic. Eclog. XI, 1 ; Strabo, xvi, 761 ; Josephus, Cont. Apion. ii, 6; Ewald, Isr. Gesch. ii, 110 sq.; Tacit. Hist, v, 5, 4. But see Bertheau, Isr. Gesch. p. 248) the Israelites were not forbidden to make any image in stone, wood, or metal (Michaelis, H/os. Recht, p. 150 sq.). for even in the sanc- tuary of Jehovah, on the ark of the covenant, there were two cherubs of gold ; and flower-work as orna- ment was ))laced on the golden candlestick ; and the large brazen bathing-vessel in the court (the so-called brazen sea [q.v.]) was supported on twelve brazen oxen (1 Kings vii, 25), though Josephus blames this arrange- ment as illegal {Ant. viii, 7, 5). In the wilderness, too, even Moses set up a brazen serpent (Numb, xxi, 8), and the Philistines offered golden figures as an offering to Jehovah (1 Sam. vi, 17 sq.). But the design was to forbid all worship of images, and also all images of Je- hovah (comp. Exod. XX, 5; Josephus, ,4?)/. iii, 5, 5; Philo, 0pp. ii, 591), for a sensual people would easih' be led into idolatry \)\ them, or at least would lose much of the spirituality of their ideas of Jehovah (comp. Philo, 0pp. i,4:dG); and thus tlie golden calf of Aaron (Exod. xxxii, 4), the graven image of the children of Dan (Judg. xviii, 31 ; comp. xvii, 4), and the two golden calves of Jeroboam (1 Kings xii, 28 sq.) were antitheocratic. Yet this Mosaic law prevented the great progress of sculpt- ure, which in all nations has received its greatest im- pulse from religious faith and worship. (Schnaase, Gesch. d. hihl. Kibisle, i, 257, thinks that the imagination of the Hebrews, as shown in their jioetry, was too quick and mercurial for the patient work of sculpture.) Most of their works of brass of this kind were by Phoenician artists (1 Kings vii, 14). An example of sculpture not of a religious charr.ctcr occurs in the audience throne
SCULPTURE
486
SCULPTURE
of Solomon, which was supported and surrounded by fourteen tiuely wrought lions, tlie symbol of strength (I Kings X, 19 sq. ; 2 Chron. ix, 19 sq.)- After the ex- ile, stricter views prevailed ; and the orthodox Jews, or followers of the Pharisees, interpreted the Mosaic prohi- bition of sculpture in general (.losephus, Ant. xv, 8, 1 ; xvii, f), 2 ; xviii, 3, 1; \Va?; i'l, 9, '2 ; corrip. also Mai- mouides in Hottinger, Jus. Hcbr. 39), even of architectu- ral ornament (Josephus, War, ii, 10, 4; comp. Ant. xvii, 6, 2 \ Tacit. Hist, v, 5, 5. Yet according to Josephus, .4 nt. iii, (5, 2, only the images of living creatures were pro- hibited). Accordingly, a palace of the tetrarch Herod in Tiberias, which was adorned with the figures of beasts, was burned by order of the Sanhedrim, simply because it was thouglit to violate their law (Josephus, Life, 12). Still less were images tolerated in the Tem- ple (id. ir«r, i, 33, 2 ; .4 h/. xvii, 6, 2). Even the im- age of the emperor, carried on the eagles of the sol- diers, coidd not be admitted into Jerusalem ( ibiil. xviii, 3, 1, and 5, 3 ; comp. War, ii, 9, 2 , Ant. xv, S, 1 sq.). Yet such rigid views were not universal ; at least, at an earlier period, John Hyrcanus adorned his castle beyond the Jordan with colossal animal figures ((iiW. xii, 4, 11 ) ; queen Alexandra had portraits of her children made (ibid, xv, 2, (5) ; and Herod Agrippa pos- sessed statues of his daughters (ibid, xix, 9, 1). — Winer. Hebrew sculpture, such as it was, no doubt was based upon, and sustained by, the art as practiced in Egypt. It was there governed by very strict rules, fixed pro- portions being established for every figure, which the statuary was not permitted to violate; and hence arises the great sameness in the Egyptian statues, and the stiffness for which they are all remarkable. Isaiah describes the process of idol -making very minutely. "The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he mark- eth it out with the compass, an<l maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man ; that it may remain in his house" ( xliv, 13). The mode of proceeding will easily be understood by a reference to the accompanying engravings. When a proper block of marble or granite had been procured by the sculptor, the surface was first smoothed, and parallel lines tlrawn from top to bottom ; other lines were then drawn, at equal distances, from side to side, so as to di- vide the whole into a series of squares. The size of these squares was proportioned to the size of the figure, but the number of them was invariable, whatever might be the dimensions of the figure: nineteen of these squares, according to some authoriiies, and twenfj'-one aud one fourth according to others, were allowed for the height of the human body; when smaller figures
Ancient Egvptinns Poli^hin;: (Figs. 2-4) a Colossal Sittiuf; Statue of Granite (Fig. 1).