Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/127

 Materials. 109 spite of its shortcomings, such an art had, then, one great merit ; it was, in the highest degree, national ; it was frankly inspired by the most universal passion of the people among whom it was born, by the ideas it suggested it helped to keep that passion alive and to add to its force, and so contributed not a little to develop the habits and sentiments in which the power and originality of a violent, fanatical, and warlike race consisted. § 2. Materials. If the national dress and social régime, as well as the natural conditions of the country had their effect upon Mesopotamian art, so too had the materials employed. In our study of Egyptian sculpture we endeavoured to show how greatly the artist depended on his material, and what a strongly modifying effect the latter had upon the nature of the interpretation he could give to his thought. 1 The monuments of Assyria especially invite the same remark. The Chaldaeans seem to have made use, as a rule, of very hard rocks for their sculptures, rocks similar to those used by the later Egyptians for their more important works. In Chaldaea a stone statue was a rare object. On the few occasions when a Chaldaean prince, or even private individual, indulged in such a luxury, he did not spare expense ; once in a way the cost did not matter ; it was of far greater moment that the work should be durable, and blocks were brought from any distance that might be necessary to ensure that result. Thus it is that nearly all the monuments that have been recovered in the lower valley of the Euphrates are of basalt, diorite, or dolerite. The difference between the styles of the Egyptian and Chaldaean sculptures was not caused, then, by the materials employed, but by something far less easily defined — by the peculiar genius of the two peoples. They neither saw nature with the same eyes nor interpreted it in the same spirit. The situation was rather different in Assyria. There a plentiful supply of easily-cut stone, alabaster, and several varieties of limestone of more or less hardness was to be had. These 1 Art in Ancient Egypt, vol. ii. pp. 302 314.