Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/180

 1 62 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a. the palace in Mesopotamia, Assyria, and northern Syria, have been replaced by Egyptian sphinxes. The mother idea is indeed borrowed from the Nile valley, but treatment and details are modified, and closely resemble Assyrian style. Thus, for example, throughout the range of Egyptian art, the sphinx is figured in low relie.f, in a recumbent posture about the doorway. Here, however, he is sculptured in the round, and set up on his hind-quarters on either gate-post, facing the palace avenue. Then, too, in the former country, the headdress has two side lappets which encircle the face, but the Cappadocian artist, fiWiifi^^Sllii?^ discarding his national '' klaft," has taken the rmglets or volutes which characterize Hathor's head-gear.^ With him again the ear occupies its proper position, whilst in figures of Egyptian origin it is invariably car- ried too high, above the line of the eyebrow, sometimes even above the fillet surrounding the brow. This applies to the necklace, which is made to touch the chin, but in the rare instances where it occurs in Egyptian sculpture it falls low over the breast. The result is a compo- site work, which holds a middle course between Assyrian and Egyp- tian style. On the other hand, the influence of the Nile valley is not apparent on the sculptured stones extending along the wall. In details they call to the memory the monuments at Boghaz-Keui ; in a general way, those of Assyria and Persia, albeit neither suggest historical scenes such as are current on the walls and stairways of Ninevite, Susian, and Persepolitan palaces. As at Boghaz-Keui, here also we see a double religious procession meeting near the entrance, on the block next to the corner-stone (6 in plan), with an altar and two figures, male and female, carved upon it (Fig. 328). The personage with a crooked staff is almost identical with the priest at lasili-Kaia ^ Hi'sf. of Art, torn. i. Fig. 244. See also Merriam, " Arrangement of the Hair on the Sphinxes at Eyuk " {American Journal of Archceology^ vol. i. pp. 150-160). Fig. 329.— Bull Idol. Eyuk. Plate LVI.