Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/220

 190 A History of Art in Ciiald.ea and Assyria which, indeed, we are unable to measure the rapidity ; but whose results are now before our eyes. We can hardly doubt that it reached a pitch of executive skill which often gave quite remark- able delicacy and finesse to the most insignificant details of sculpture and ornament. This had already suggested itself to M. Heuzey in the course of his study of the small Chaldœo- Babylonian figures belonging to the collection of terra-cottas in the Louvre : l he found the same merits in several of the fragments collected by M. de Sarzec. 2 We have been unable to reproduce all the pieces to which he alludes ; some are too small to be rendered in a fashion that would do justice to the excellence of their treatment ; 3 but that we may give some idea of the third group we are thus led to form, we shall figure two or three small objects, which the visitor will find without difficulty in the cases of the Louvre. One of these is a fragment from a bas-relief on which nothing remains but a foot, charmingly modelled, and a piece of ornament representing a vase from which two streams of water, each supporting a fish, are flowing (Fig. 102). The hardly sensible relief and the extreme finesse of this motive, remind us of the marvels of Japanese workmanship. 4 Still more striking is a small, a very small, head in steatite, reproducing the same type as the large statues with a grace and precision that make it a veritable gem (Fig. 103). The eyes have the oblique inclination that was afterwards to become so conspicuous in the Assyrian reliefs, but in a very slight degree. We may apply almost the same remarks to another but less well preserved head in diorite. Unlike all those we have as yet encountered, it is not shaven. In spite of the stubborn material the twists and turns of the hair and beard are sculptured in relief with admirable skill and precision. It was during this period that the custom was introduced of 1 Heuzey, Catalogue, p. 32. 2 Heuzey, Les Fouilles de la Chaldce, p. 15. 3 We may give as an instance the very small fragment of a relief in white stone, representing the Indian humped bull, the zebu, which has also been met with in the Assyrian bas-reliefs. The treatment is very fine. 4 See De Longperier, Monuments antiques de la Chaldée découverts et rapportés par M. de Sarzec {Œuvres, vol. i. p. 335). The learned archaeologist, of whom the writing of this paper was one of the last occupations, saw in this fragment evidence of worship rendered to the great rivers that watered and fertilized Mesopotamia ; the double stream of water is the symbol of Naharaim, or " the two rivers," a symbol whose presence in other objects from the same region he points out.