Page 151 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART TWO: THE PERIPHERAL
regions
Anatolia and north Syria (Chaptc
tt- • , • , - r 10 below) approaches tliis standard. Now, there is a
letter from
, , . kmS °f t lC bc8inuiuS of tire tliirtcenth century, Hattusilis III who
‘ k a k^S °f Babylon to lend him a sculptor. The Hittite promises to send him back as
soon as he has finished Ins work, as he had already done on a former occasion when bor-
, S a SCulpt0;' from the Kassite’s father.21 There is no Kassitc sculpture in the round
tor comparison, but in one respect Hittite carving has closer analogies to Babylonian
than to Egyptian or Assyrian work; it uses a very heavy, thoroughly plastic relief, while
Egypt and Assyria use flat relief with a subtly modulated surface. In Babylonia, durum
the Dynasties of Akkad, Ur III, and Babylon, relief is also entirely plastic (Plates 44, 53,
and 65). The sculptor of the god of the Royal Gate at Boghazkcuy (Plates 127 and 130A)

Figure 49. Sphinx, from Yerkapu

goes even further; the face is free for almost three-quarters of its depth, and at Yasili-
kaya, the open-air sanctuary near Boghazkeuy, the reliefs show less deep but nevertheless
is no question of any of these
complete modelling (Plates 130, b and c; 131). There i
sculptures looking like Mesopotamian works; but their formal peculiarities would be
explained if we could assume that a Babylonian artist instructed Hittite sculptors in the
procedures of his craft. The physiognomy of the god of the Royal Gate and of the
sphinxes is distinctively Anatolian, and returns in the bronzes of plate 129. Dress and
and the details of the lions and sphinxes, are also peculiar. There is no doubt
weapons,
original, and capable school of sculptors existed during the fourteenth
that a vigorous,
and thirteenth centuries in eastern Anatolia. ,
The sphinxes at Yerkapu had a lion’s body and wings, and wore a horned cap crowne
bv three pairs of volutes each encircling a rosette.- When seen in this baroque context
/!• rTL the remarkable qualities of the modelling of the face are easfly overlooked
(Plate 126). The Hons from the Lion Gate are likewise plastic in their main effect (Plate

122