Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/42

20 of archaic art, which may be assigned with probability to the Athenian school.7

In this figure, as in the pictures on archaic vases, the artist has attempted too literal a rendering of nature, and has thus crowded his work with details, rather to the detriment of the general effect. This over-minuteness is characteristic of Assyrian, as contrasted with Egyptian art. The details of the armour are very carefully given. The cuirass has been painted. On the shoulder-strap is a star; on the breast a lion's face, on a red ground; below this is a mæander band across the body, which is traversed obliquely by a crimson band, apparently a lace or stirng, knotted on the breast, and terminating at the side in an ornament like a thunderbolt. Below these ornaments and about the waist of the figure is another band, ornamented with zigzags. The ground on which the figure is relieved is red. The left hand holds a spear. On the head appears to be a skull-cap, only covering the crown : the hair falls in parallel rows of ringlets. The beard is channelled in zigzags.

It is interesting to compare this figure with another work of the archaic period in the Theseium, executed in a different school, and probably at an earlier epoch. This is a naked male figure broken off" at the knees. The face has the rigid smile and peculiar type of countenance which characterize the head of Pallas on the early coins of Athens; the corners of the eyes being turned up towards the ears. The hair, arranged in regular curls on the forehead, falls down the back in long