Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/368

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A History of Art in Chauvi. a and Assyria, from those on which the ornament is most definite, and clearly marked. It was noticed by those who saw the veil of oxide drawn away from the ornamentation of these bronze vessels that a large pro- portion of them were Egyptian rather than Assyrian in their general physiognomy. Some of them displayed motives familiar to all those who have travelled in the Nile valley. Take, for instance, the fragment we have borrowed from one of the best preserved of them all (Fig. 209). 1 Neither the minute lines of palmettes in the centre, nor the birds that occur in the outer Fig. 209. — Bronze platter. Diameter about 9 inches. British Museum. Drawn by Wallet. border, have, perhaps, any great significance, but nothing could be more thoroughly Egyptian than the zone of figures between the two. The same group is there four times repeated. Two griffins crowned with the pschent, or double tiara of upper and lower Egypt, have each a foot resting upon the head of a kneeling child, but their movement is protective rather than menacing. Instead of struggling, the child raises its hands in a gesture of adoration. Between the griffins and behind them occur slender columns, quite similar to those we have so often 1 This platter is figured in Layard's Monuments, plate 63, but our drawing was made from the original.