Page 132 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE LATE ASSYRIAN PERIOD

of the Mesopotamians. The small bronze of plate ii8b, a truly sickening monstrosity,
fiercely alive, shows that the Assyrians had lost none of this power.
The lampstand (if it is such)59 on plate 117 stands midway between the two other
objects. The figure is hardly ornamentalized. It stands upon a column base of the north
Syrian type used also in Assyrian architecture for porticoes (Figure 35). The three legs
consist of ducks* heads and bulls’ hoofs. This combination of heterogeneous elements is
well in keeping with the baroque richness of the furniture illustrated in the reliefs. The
feet of the lampstand show that the ‘zoomorphic juncture’ which was to play so im­
portant a part in Scythian art was known in Assyria; it was also known in the kingdom

i !

Figure 40. Door-sill of marble, from Khorsabad

of Urartu round Lake Van60 and it is impossible to say in which of these two regions it
originated.
In the cup of plate ii8a,61 the natural forms are completely reduced to ornaments.
The ears and horns of the antelope lie against the side of the cup, and a ridge connecting
the root of the horns with the ears continues round the cup as a row of spiral curls, the
Assyrian convention for the rendering of hair. There is a fringe of similar curls across the
forehead. The eyes and eyebrows and the veins of the face have been made into orna-
mental designs so far removed from nature that one would wonder whether the cup
might not be of Achaemenian workmanship if it were not for the frieze of figures alono-
the rim, which are purely Assyrian.
The Assyrian reliefs also allow us to form an idea of the rich decoration of their tex-
tUes. Door-sills of temples and palaces were engraved with designs which render carpets
(Figure 40). The king's robe (Figure 41) was embroidered with decorative motifs of the

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