Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/207

 Assyrian Sculpture. 177 profile, with both eyes and shoulders visible. But for this flaw, the Assyrian bas-reliefs would be fine works of art. They are in very low relief, and are well carved and finely polished. The subjects are very varied. Battles, sieges, and hunting incidents abound. Our illustration (Fig. 73) is part of a lion-hunt — now in the British Museum — from the north-west palace of Nimrud. In Fig. 73. — Assyrian bas-relief. Part of a Lion-hunt, from Ninirud. every scene the king is the principal figure. He is always followed by an umbrella-bearer and a fly-flapper, or by musicians, and above his head hovers the Ferouher, the winged symbol of divinity. Among the monarchs who figure in the various bas-reliefs are Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar. Single statues are rare ; there is a statue of a priest larger than life (Fig. 74) in the British Museum ; but the nude human figure does not appear to have been studied in the East to any extent ; although many different animals are rendered with surprising fidelity. In addition to numerous sculptured Assyrian slabs and tablets, the British Museum possesses a small four-sided eha n