Page 113 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART one: MESOPOTAMIA
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Figure 37. Wall of Sargon’s throne room at Khorsabad, reconstructed by Charles Altman

Empire are a great deal coarser and clumsier than the normal statues which are three-
quarters life size or smaller. But in the figures from Khorsabad - those from Nimrud are
a little inferior — there is not only exquisite modelling (note the fine wrist and hand hold­
ing the sprinkler in plate 83) but a profusion of ornament: tassels at the kilt, a row of em­
broidered rosettes edging the shawl, bracelets, and wristlets. The hair and feathers, too,
are rendered in a way which exploits their decorative potentialities to the full.

Relief and Painting

The same loving treatment of details which we observed in the guardian figures of the
palaces marks the reliefs proper which constitute the greatest and most original achieve­
ment of the Assyrians. In fact, the history of Assyrian art is mainly the history of relief­
carving.
In earlier times, relief had been confined to steles, and its possibilities had thus been
limited. In late Assyrian times, too, steles were set up (Plate 116). Their designs were
simple and monotonous; the general scheme resembled that of the upright panel painted
on the wall of Sargon’s throne room (Plate 95 ; Figure 37). The king stands either in
front of the statue of a god or he merely makes the gesture of adoration, and divine
emblems appear in the field over his head; or enemies make obeisance before him. In
this case the king may hold a rope fastened through their noses (cf. Plate 73A).
A variant of the stele is the so-called ‘obelisk* (Plate 93), a standing stone, more or less
square in section, bearing designs and texts on all four sides. Plate 73 a shows the top of
one, set up by a successor of Tiglathpilesar I (after 1089 b.c.). A similar monument was
erected by Assumasirpal II;16 it is too much damaged for illustration, but is of great
interest Its reliefs are arranged in narrow bands, one above the other, but each band con­
tinues round the four sides of the stone; for instance, a war-chariot is shown on one face
of the obelisk, but of its horses one sees only the hindquarters; their front parts appear

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