Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/240

 218 A HISTORY OF ART IN CHAI.D.KA AND ASSYRIA. of the tent. The stone column had no place in those structures of crude brick of which the real national architecture of Meso- potamia consisted ; it was not at home there ; the surrounding conditions were unfavourable to its development. And yet, in time, it did, as we have seen, put in a rare appearance, at least in the case of that one of the two sister nations by which a sufficient supply of stone could be obtained, but even then it filled an ornamental and auxiliary rather than a vital function. Its remains are only to be found by patient search, and even in the bas-reliefs its representations are few and far between. By making diligent use of these two channels of information archaeology has succeeded in demonstrating the existence of the Assyrian column and describing its forms, but at the same time it has been compelled to recognize how narrow was its use, especially in the great structures on which Mesopotamian builders lavished all the resources of their art. In those it was employed mainly for the decoration of outbuildings, and it will be well to inquire how it acquitted itself of such a task. The column seems to have been introduced in those gateways to which the Assyrian architect attached so much importance. 1 Read carefully Sir Henry Layard's description of his discovery of two sphinxes upon one of the facades of the south-western palace at Kouyuncljik (Fig. 83) ; he gives no plan of the passage where he found them, but his narrative 2 suggests the existence of some kind of porch in front of the large opening. It must have been upheld by a pair of columns on the backs of the two sphinxes, and may have consisted of one of those wooden canopies which are so common in the modern architecture of the East. 3 We are inclined to recognize a pent house of this kind, but 1 Thomas has placed one of these porches in his restoration of Sargon's palace at Khorsabad. It is supported by two columns, and serves to mark one of the entrances to the harem. (PLACE, Ninive, vol. iii. plate 37 bis.} 2 LAYARD, Nineveh, vol. i. pp. 349, 350. 3 Numerous examples are figured in COSTE and P"LANDIN'S Perse Moderne, plates 3, 7, 9, 26, 27, 54, &c. They cast a wide shadow in front of the doorways, and sometimes run along the whole length of the facade. Some little support to M. Perrot's theory iz afforded by a circumstance on which Layard dwells strongly in the passage referred to above, namely, that the sphinxes were found buried over their heads in charcoal, which may very well have been the remains of such a porch ; its quantity seems too great for those of a ceiling. ED.