Page 67 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

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PART ONE: MESOPOTAMIA

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A B
Figure 15. Seal impressions of the second Early Dynastic period, from (a) Tell Agrab and (b) Khafajc

of this extraordinary monster; it originated ‘on paper*, a product of the craftsman’s
fancy. Two stages of its genesis can be recognized in our plates. In plate 39B, on the left,
a bull-man dispatches with a dagger a lion which he holds upside down by the hind legs,
l
hi plate 39c, a slightly later seal, the naked hero grips two lions in this position. The three
elements of the group have coalesced, fused by the draughtsman’s imagination into a
single, more marvellous creature, to take for a moment its place among the mythical
bull-men and human-headed bulls, the lions and lion-headed eagles. Other monsters,
too, came into being in this fashion. Even when subjects more significant than the ani­
mal frieze were rendered, the design showed the closely spaced, symmetrical, or repeti­
tive character of a textile pattern. That is the case, for instance, with the sun-god in his
boat (Figure 15B), which we shall discuss later. A story is but rarely told in a straight­
forward manner, without attempt at decorative effect.
The strength of the seals of the Second Early Dynastic Period lay in the rich variety of
designs which were neither purely ornamental nor clearly representational and which
derive their fascination from the ambiguity of their subject as well as from their formal
beauty. They were executed in a linear, disembodied style whose possibilities were ex­
ploited to the full.
The next development was a movement away from this method of engraving. The
Third Early Dynastic Period returned to the modelling in relief which had been com­
mon in the Protoliteratc Period, but had been lost during its final decline, and had been
neglected in the First Early Dynastic revival of the Brocade Style. The Third Early
Dynastic Period kept to the themes of the preceding age, but made them appear more
substantial. The potentialities of modelling were recognized and the depth of the figure
was no longer treated as an inevitable but aesthetically indifferent consequence of the
technique of engraving. The new style gave importance to parts of the design which its
predecessor had used cavalierly. A comparison of the seals of plate 40 with the earlier
one of plate 39, A and b, brings out the lack of interest of the flat surfaces in the animals
hindquarters or the hero’s legs. In plate 39c the body of the rampant gazelle is still nearly
flat, but the hero’s body and the lions’ hindquarters arc truly modelled, and the play of
light and shadow lifts these areas out of their previous insignificance.
The lions in plate 39c (as in most of the seals of the Third Early Dynastic Period) show
their face in front view, while it had been rendered before in profile (Plate 39A; Figure
14). The frontal view allowed the contrast between face and mane to achieve its full
plastic effect; similarly the ibexes and stags of plate 40c stand out against the embroidery
of plant design covering the background, while in the earlier style (Figure 14B) the
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