Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/301

 DECORATION. 279 aid of these three tints an effect has been obtained that, according to Loftus, is far from being disagreeable. The process may be compared to that of mosaic, cones of terra-cotta being substituted for little cubes of coloured stone or glass. 1 Upon the same site M. Loftus found traces of a still more singular decoration. A mass of crude brick had its horizontal courses divided from each other by earthenware vases laid so that their open mouths were flush with the face of the wall. Three courses of these vases were placed one upon another, and the curious ornament thus made was re- peated three times in the piece of wall left standing-. The vases were from ten o to fifteen inches long externally, but inside they were never more than ten inches deep, so that their conical bases were solid. 2 The dark shadows of their open mouths afforded a strong contrast with the white plaster which covered the brick- work about them. The consequent play of light and shadow unrelieved by colour was pleasing enough. In spite, however, of their thick walls, these vases could hardly resist successfully the weight of the bricks above and the various dis- integrating influences set up by their con- traction in drying. Most of the vases were broken when Loftus saw them, though still in place. Cone mosaics and the insertion of vases among the bricks FIG. 120. Cone with coloured base ; from Loftus. 1 LOFTUS thinks that the process was very common, at least in Lower Chaldsea. He found cones imbedded in mortar at several other points in the Warka ruins, but the example we have reproduced is the only one in which well-marked designs could still be clearly traced. TAYLOR saw cones of the same kind at Abou-Shareyn. They had no inscriptions, and their bases were black (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society^ vol. xv. p. 411). They formed in all probability parts of a decoration similar to that described by Loftus. In Egypt we find cones of terra-cotta crowning the facades of certain Theban tombs (RHIND, Thebes, its Tombs and their Tenants, p. 136). Decoratively they seem allied to the cones of Warka, but the religious formulae they bear connects them rather with the cones found by M. de Sarzec at Tello, which bear commemorative inscriptions. To these we shall return at a later page. 2 LOFTUS, Travels and Researches, pp. 190, 191