Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/124

 104 A HISTORY OF ART IN CHALD/EA AND ASSYRIA. sovereign, his great and never-ending achievements as a conqueror and destroyer of monsters, as pontif of Assur and the founder of palaces and cities such are the themes to which Assyrian sculpture devoted itself for many centuries, taking them up and varying them in countless ways, and that, apparently, without any fear that he for whom the whole work was intended would ever grow weary of the repetition. Such themes presuppose the actual occurrence of the events represented and the artists' realization either from personal obser- vation or from descriptions. This gives rise to a very sensible difference between Chaldsean sculpture and that of Assyria, so far at least as the latter is to be studied in the decorations of a palace. In those characteristics and qualities of execution which permit of a definition, the style is no doubt the same as in Chaldsea. The artists of Babylon and those of Nineveh were pupils in one school they saw nature with the same eyes ; the same features interested and attracted the attention of both; they had the same prejudices and the same conventions. The symbols and com- binations of forms we have noticed as proper to Chaldaean art are here also ; scenes of invocation to gods and genii ; ornamental groups and motives. An instance of the latter is to be found in the rich embroidery with which the robes of the Assyrian kings are covered. 1 Finally, we must remember that all Assyrian art was not included in the adornment of the palace. Before a complete and definite judgment can be formed upon it the monuments of religious and industrial art should be passed under review, but, unhappily, no temple interior, and a very small number of objects of domestic luxury and daily use, have come down to us. These gaps are to be regretted, but we must not forget that the bas-reliefs were ordered by the king, that the thousands of figures they contain were introduced for the sake of giving tclat to the power, the valour, and the genius of the sovereign, and that the best artists of which Assyria could boast were doubtless entrusted with their execution. Under the reserves thus laid down we may, then, devote ourselves to the study of the Ninevite sculptures that fill the museums of London and Paris ; we may consider them the strongest and most original creations of Assyrian art. Now the sculpture upon the alabaster slabs with which the palace 1 L YARD, The Afonumeuts of Nineveh (folio, 1849), plates 43-50.