Page 27 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

INTRODUCTION
arts, for there is a striking discrepancy between their artistic and their literary achieve­
ments. If we think of the poetic splendours of the Old Testament, or even of the poetry
in the Ras Shamra texts, we shall look in vain for a single Syrian or Palestinian work of
art that reaches comparable levels. But we must also remember that these countries were
politically unstable. Small independent principalities were frequently established, only
to succumb again to the armies of Egypt or Assyria, or to be overrun by barbarian
hordes. In epochs of prosperity feverish attempts were made to equal the magnificence
of Thebes or Babylon, so diat the prestige of some local potentate might be enhanced.
But under such conditions neither originality nor artistic maturity can be expected, and
even the best of the various local schools arc manifestly derivative. Asia Minor, Syria,
Palestine, and Persia must, therefore, be treated as peripheral regions where art reflected
- within narrow limits - the contemporary achievements of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Yet their adaptations and combinations of borrowed themes show sufficient original­
ity to be of interest, so much more since the peripheral regions served as transmitters of
the Near Eastern repertoire to Greece. I could have made this relationship of the ancient
Near East with Greece, and hence with Western art as a whole, my main theme. For
while it is true that we are estranged from ancient Near Eastern thought by the sway
which Greek philosophy and biblical ediics hold over our own, there has never been a
corresponding break in artistic continuity. It would, in fact, be tedious to stress in this
book every first appearance of an architectural device, a sculptural form, a decorative
dieme which has subsequently become part of the repertoire of Western art. But there
are two reasons against placing this aspect of the ancient Near Eastern achievement in
the foreground. It would, in the first place, have required a very full treatment of the
minor arts. And, in the second place, it would have reduced the history of ancient Near
Eastern art to a mere prelude to diat of classical antiquity, whereas ancient Near Eastern
art deserves, on the contrary, to be studied for its own sake. And even if some of the
works which will be illustrated here inadequately realize their obvious purpose, they pos­
sess the merits of experiments and discoveries and are significant in their consequences.
The structure of the ancient Near East determines the lines along which exposition
must proceed. This volume will first follow the development of Mesopotamian art, and
then discuss the peripheral schools to which it gave rise at various times. A separate
volume will be dedicated to Egypt.
The general reader may find that the interpretation of individual works, and the his­
torical connexions between distinct schools and regions, are sometimes substantiated
with more detail than he requires. But conclusions drawn from discoveries so recently
made cannot hope to command general assent unless they are well founded. A more
apodeictic style would, moreover, have given a false impression of finality.

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