Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/422

Rh 398 ARCHITECTURE [ASSYRIAN. and had small windows at the springing. M. Victor Place has found at Khorsabad several vaults, and also terra cotta tubes, through which he believes that the vaults were lighted, just as domes were in Persia in later times. But no vault has been found large enough to span any of the wide Assyrian halls. Of their elevations there are few traces remaining. At Nimroud, what is supposed to be the tomb of Sardanapalus has its lower part, which is about 20 feet high, of solid masonry, and the rest of burnt bricks. It has slightly projecting piers, but no ornaments or mouldings. At Khorsabad and the S.E. palace of Nimroud there is some attempt at decoration, by rude semi-columns, without capitals or bases, arranged in clusters of seven, side by side, the groups being separated by recesses. A few detached pieces of moulding have been found at Khorsabad, but of the very simplest kind, and we have no vestiges of capital or entablature. Were our knowledge limited to these and a few similar remains, we should have to form but a poor idea of Assyrian art. But the sculptures have revealed to us a degree of refine ment which had been previously looked for only in Greece. These sculptures lined the sides of the halls to a height of 10 feet. In them we see columns with both base and capital, and surmounted by entablatures. Sometimes the columns are combined with pilasters, as in the Greek por ticos in antis. In one specimen the columns were carried on the backs of bulls, as is shown by one of the bas-reliefs, and, more conclusively still, by the beautiful small model of a winged bull brought to England by Mr George Smith, which has carved upon its back a base, just as is shown on the slabs. In these bas-reliefs we have further 1. The facade of a palace, having at top a grand row of window openings divided by Ionic columns ; 2. A small building on the banks of a river, having two columns with bases and a kind of Ionic capital, between two plain pilasters, and with rude indications of a cornice; 3. Another facade of two columns, with bases, and Corinthian capitals, between two pilasters, likewise with capitals. Over these is an entablature, some what rudely worked, but clearly showing architrave, frieze, and cornice, and antefixae over. The latest of these slabs must have been carved many years before the earliest date assigned to any known Greek work. In view of these and similar remains the following words of Niebuhr are memor able : &quot; There is a want in Grecian art which no man living can supply. There is not enough in Egypt to account for the peculiar art and mythology of Greece. But those who live after me will see on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates the origin of Grecian mythology and art.&quot; The plans of all the Assyrian buildings are rectangular, and we know that long ago, as now, the Eastern architects iised this outline almost invariably, and upon it reared some of the most lovely and varied forms ever devised. They gather over the angles by graceful curves, and on the basis of an ordinary square hall carry up a minaret or a dome, an octagon or a circle. That this was sometimes done in Assyria is shown by the sculptures. Slabs from Kouyunjik show domes of varied form, and tower-like structures, each rising from a square base. The resemblance between the ancient form of the dome and those still used in the Assyrian villages is very striking. Whether sloping roofs were used is uncertain. Mr Bonomi believes that they were, and a few sculptures seem to support his view. Of the private houses nothing, of course, remains ; but they are repre sented on the slabs as being of several stories in height, the ground floor as usual having only a door and no windows. All have flat roofs, and we gather from one of the bas-reliefs, which represents a town on fire, that these roofs were made, just as they now are, with thick layers of earth on strong beams. These roofs are well-nigh fire proof, and the flames are represented as stopped by them, and coming out of the windows. No remains of a window, or, so far as we are aware, of an internal staircase, have been found. Of the fortifications we know much more. In the north wall of Nimroud fifty-eight towers have been traced, and at Kouyunjik there are large remains of three walls, the lower part being of stone, and the upper of sun-dried bricks. At Khorsabad there are the remains of a wall, still 40 feet high, built of blocks of stone 3 to 4 feet thick, and the evi dences wanting as to the finishing of these is completely sup plied by the sculptures, which show an extraordinary resem blance to mediaeval works of the same class. Tier upon tier of walls are represented, enclosing a great tower or keep in the centre. The entrances are great arched gateways flanked by square towers. These and the other towers have overhanging parapets just like the mediaeval machi colations, and are finished at top with battlements, remains of which have been found at Nimroud and Kouyunjik, and at Kaleh Shergat, the supposed capital of Assyria before Nineveh. Of temples distinct from the palace we have a few sup posed remains, but little is absolutely known as to their general form. But in Chaldea there are some enormous masses of ruins, evidently remains of the vast mounds which formed the substructure of their temples. The grandest of ail these and the most interesting is the Birs Nimroud, near Babylon, which has been identified as the temple of tho Seven Spheres at Borsippa. This was reconstructed by Nebuchadnezzar, as appears by a well-known inscription. Another example is at Mugeyer, which was 198 feet by 133 feet at the base, and is even now 70 feet high, and it is clear that both it and the Birs were built with diminish ing stages, presenting a series of grand platforms, decreas ing in length as they ascended, and leaving a comparatively small one at top for the temple cell. This has been found, it is supposed, at the Birs Nimroud, of vitrified brick. The most interesting parts of the Assyrian edifices are the finishings. The pavements were sometimes of sun-dried bricks, at other times of baked bricks, or of alabaster slabs laid in bitumen. At Khorsabad there was one in a single block 13 feet square, and 3 ft. 11 in. thick, and at the Nim roud temple there were two slabs, one 19 ft. 6 in. by 12 feet, and the other 21 feet by 16 feet, and 1 ft. 1 in. thick, both sides covered with inscriptions. Of ornamental pavements there are admirable examples from Kouyunjik at the British Museum, and from Khorsabad at the Louvre, both covered with delicate carving in alabaster of nearly the same pattern. It is difficult to conceive how such delicate work could have been used as paving, and still retain its beautiful sharpness ; for it was not filled in to protect the pattern. Directly above the pavement came the sculptured slabs, which are so numerous that at Kouyunjik alone there are some 2 miles in length of them. They are generally about 10 feet high from the ground, and are carved in alabaster. Many of them show traces of having been decorated with colours. Connected with these sculptures were the great winged animals which stand one on each side of the portals of the palaces. Some of the grandest have the body and legs of a bull, with an enormous pair of wings projecting from the shoulders, high over their backs, and covering the breast. They have human heads, bull s ears with large ear-rings, and horns, winding from the brows upwards, and encircl ing a coronet of leaves, bound by a fillet of roses. They stood in pairs on each side of the palace doorways, and it is thought by some that generally there were no doors or lintels, all being open to the roof and enclosed with curtains. But doors were sometimes used, as the places or