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 A History of Art in Chald/EA and Assyria. globe are indicated by numerous vertical and horizontal grooves set close together ; but the circular hollows appear not only in the globe and in the piece of furniture that occupies the fore- ground, but also in the knees, calves, ankles, and other parts of the two figures. As time went on they learnt to use their tools with more freedom and more varied skill. We shall not attempt to follow M. Soldi in tracing the art through all its successive stages. 1 As an example of the skill to which the Mesopotamian artist had attained towards the seventh century b.c. we may quote a splendid cornelian cylinder belonging to the British Museum (Fig. 141)." The subject is extremely simple. In its general lines it continually recurs on the bas-reliefs and gems of the Fig. 141. — Assyrian cylinder. 13 ritL h Museum. Di awn by Wallet. Sargonid period. A winged personage, with his arms extended, stands between two fantastic winged quadrupeds and grasps each by a fore-paw. The chief actor in the scene is very like the winged genius whom we encounter so often on the walls of the palaces (see above, Fig. 36), while both in the exaggerated modelling of the leers and in the care with which the smallest details of the costume are carried out, the special features that distinguished the sculpture of the time may be recognized. The execution is firm and significant, though a little dry and hard. It is made up of short cuts, close together ; the engraver did not understand 1 The three pages in which M. Soldi sums up the result of his inquiries, may be studied with advantage (Les Arts méconnus, pp. 62-64). 2 See J. MENANT, Observations sur trois Cylindres orientaux (Gazette des Beaux- Arts, December, 1879).