Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/215

 CONSTRUCTION. 193 those of Egypt. In the paintings of the Theban tombs the kiosks and pavilions of wood and metal are figured in all the variety and vivacity derived from the brilliant colours with which they were adorned. Nothing of the kind is to be found in Mesopotamia. Our only documents are the uncoloured reliefs which, even in the matter of form, are more reticent than we could have wished. But in spite of their simplification these representations allow us to perceive clearly enough the mingled elegance and richness that characterized the structures in question. Thus in a bas-relief at Nimroucl representing the interior of a fortress, a central place is occupied by a small pavilion generally supposed to represent the royal tent (Fig. 67). l The artist could FIG. 67. Interior of the Royal Tent ; from Layard. not give a complete representation of it, with all its divisions and the people it contained. He shows only the apartment in which the high-bred horses that drew the royal chariot were groomed and fed. Before the door of the pavilion an eunuch receives a company of prisoners, their hands bound behind them, and a soldier at their elbow. Higher up on the relief the sculptor has figured the god with fish's scales whom we have already en- countered (see Fig. 9). To him, perhaps, the king attributed the capture of the fortress that has just fallen into his hands. It is not, however, with an explanation of the scene that we are 1 As to the great size sometimes reached by the tents of the Arab chiefs, and the means employed to divide them into several apartments, see LAYARD, Discoveries, p. 313, and the sketch on page 321. c c