Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/141

 The Sanctuary. Iasili-Kaia. 125 force, the besieged would be reduced to guard the points attacked, and prevent surprise, but could never hope to take the offensive. Whilst noting this error, and the evil results which might ensue, justice should be rendered to the ingenious contrivances of the builder ; the skill and patient industry of the masons in his employ, shown in the subterraneous passages, notably the glacis, conceived and executed with thought and care. To sum up, the qualities and the defects of this military archi- tecture bear witness to an independent and original art, whose aspirations to a high standard of excellence were partly realized. It is an art which had progressed, beyond merely using the means at its disposal, to a useful end ; its aims were already loftier ; directed to producing an agreeable effect, evidenced in the sculp- tured lions, the mouldings about jambs and lintels, etc. If the skill of the ornamentist and the sculptor, therefore, were required upon structures which, after all, might have dispensed with it, it proves the existence of artists accustomed to go to nature for their in- spirations, who used their knowledge in translating the creed, the religious ideas of the community at large, into symbolical forms, be it of men or animals. An assertion which we shall have occasion to prove in the sequel of this study. § 4. — The Sanctuary. lasili-Kaia. Ascending the hill on the right bank of the stream, about two miles east of the palace, near the base of the escarpment of a ridge of limestone rocks, are the remarkable bas-reliefs known in the locality as lasili-Kaia. They may be ranged under three heads : the more important, numbering forty-five figures (A K in plan), cover the walls of a large excavation, almost rectangular in shape, measuring 1 1 m. 40 c. in width, and about 25 m. from end to end (Fig. 310),^ which opens to the south-west towards the town, the rocks at the sides being from 8 m. to 10 m. high (Fig. 309).^ The second group, east ^ The woodcut was obtained by M. St. Elme Gautier, partly from Tdxier's Plate I>XXII., and partly from Plate XXX VI. of our Exploration Archeologique^ etc. " The plan shows a horizontal section of the rocks, at the height of the bas- relief, with the main and smaller chamber or passage and outlets. Each bas-relief is marked with a corresponding letter, so that its position can be easily found in Plate VIII. The sculpture is nearly double its real size; the scale in plan indicates 2 m. 40 c, whereas it only measures i m. 40 c.