CHAPTER I.

THE FOUNTAINS OF EUROPEAN ART.

Routes by which Art Travelled.--Their Point of Convergence.--Cyprus: Its History.--The Successive Nations Governing It.--The Strata of Ancient Civilization found within its Shores.--The Discoveries of Cesnola.--Larnaca.--Dali.--Athieno.--Curium.--Progress of Cypriote Pottery.--Early Greek Art: Its Connection with Assyria and Egypt.--Phœnician and Assyrian Art.--General Deductions.--Asia Minor.--Oriental Art turning in various Streams to Greece.--What Greece Rejected, Persia Seized upon.--Persia’s Contributions to Ceramic Art.--History in Reference to its Art.--Effect of Conquest.--What Persia Taught the Arabs.--Spread of Persian Art by the Saracens.--Rhodes.--Damascus.--Progress of Saracenic Art.--The North of Africa.--Metallic Lustre and Stanniferous Enamel.--Hispano-Moresque.--Early Spain.--Persian Influence upon Europe.....198