Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/427

 Comparison between Egypt and Chald/EA. 389 own. The great resource of the worker in precious metal lies, therefore, in those figures of men and animals to which nature has given a clearly defined shape and special features by which one is distinguished from the other. In this respect the goldsmith is the pupil of the sculptor. He reproduces, on a smaller scale, the types created by the statue-maker, and multiplies his copies with the freedom of hand imposed by the necessity for meeting a wider demand. It matters little that in one time or place these imita- tions are made with less care and refinement of taste than in another ; the principle is always the same. In the industrial arts, at least in those in which the figure plays an important role, we find nothing that cannot be referred to some model created by the same people in their fine arts. The work of the artizan is the reduction, the reflection — enfeebled, indeed, but faithful so far as it goes — of the work of the artist. In glancing over the productions of Chaldseo- Assyrian armourers, jewellers, workers in metal, cabinetmakers, turners, &c., we shall, then, feel no surprise at the introduction and skilful treatment of animals and parts of animals, for we have already shown that the Assyrian sculptors were, perhaps, the foremost animaliers of all antiquity. On the other hand, in the whole of those objects which have taught us some of the favourite motives of the Assyrian ornamentist, we have hardly encountered a human figure ; at the most we can only point to one or two objects on which it was used. In the throne of Sennacherib (see above, Fig. 47) it was in reality no more than a symbol. It was not introduced for its own sake, but in order to suggest a particular idea to the mind of the spectator. And as for the earrings moulded into the shape of a child (Figs. 251 and 252), we are not at all sure that they belong to the place and period to which they are ascribed. But although we are met on all sides by animals and by fragments from their bodies, by serpents, rams, goats, bulls, lions (most frequent of all), griffins and other fictitious monsters, we are distressed by the absence of those figures of men, still more of women, which occur so continually on the articles of furniture, on the domestic utensils, on the metal vases and the jewelry of the Egyptians. Wearied by the very wealth of an art so rich and so marvellously inventive, we have given, perhaps, in our volumes upon Egypt, examples too few and chosen from an insufficient