kings of despotic Mesopotamia arrogated to themselves the supremacy
allowed in Egypt to the gods, who in the latter country had been placed
by the priests in relation with every human action, and whose ceremonial
scenes were so predominant. The typical winged figure described above
occurs continually in small reliefs, and even in diminutive ornaments.
In rare instances a griffin or a kind of Pegasos is employed in its
place upon purely decorative works. The sacred symbol of the tree of
life, or that of the great god Ashur--the winged and encircled figure
already mentioned--is worshipped by standing or kneeling human beings
and by inferior deities. Processions are represented bearing images upon
thrones, and the sacrifice of lambs is shown, the animals being
slaughtered and burned piecemeal. These purely ceremonial reliefs differ
fundamentally from the historical scenes. In the former the figures are
over life-size; they are carved with great attention to detail, and are
never grouped, but placed at regular distances: in the latter the human
beings do not receive the attention devoted to the inanimate objects
occurring in the pictured story, and especially to the indications of
its locality. The fortifications of besieged towns are mapped out with
scrupulous exactness, and are easily understood when it is borne in mind
that the effect of distance, from the lack of perspective in this
primitive art, is expressed by piling things _upon_ one another which
were in reality _behind_ one another. Buildings are shown by reliefs
like those given in _Figs._ 35 and 57, with a more or less successful
attempt to clearly illustrate constructive details.
The landscape is conventionalized in a peculiar manner. Fields of grain
upon regularly rolling hills are designated by wavy lines; the trees are
usually suggestive of the carved toys accompanying the well-known Noah’s
ark of our children--this impression being heightened by the trunks
radially diverging from the hill, that they may be the more closely
grouped together. The childlike art of the Assyrians here expressed a
common error of childhood--that more trees can grow upon the increased
surface of a hill than upon a plain with an area equal to the base of
the hill-cone. At times, when necessary for the characterization of a
locality, palms, grape-vines, figs, and other plants are indicated by a
detailed imitation of leaves and fruit. Lakes, rivers (_Fig._ 74), and
swamps are carefully drawn in wavy parallel lines with spirally
conventionalized ripples; they are bordered with reeds and sedges, and
inhabited by aquatic animals easily recognized by the naturalist. The
events are represented in a simple and straightforward manner;
unimportant figures are diminutive and less carefully carved, while the
chief actors in a scene not only tower above their fellow-beings, but
even above trees and fortifications. As the only intention of the artist
was to represent a locality and an occurrence, he did not hesitate to
give a city such proportions that the defenders upon its battlements
could never have passed through its gates, and, standing upon the
ground, would have overtopped the towers.
These conventionalized types do not appear in the bronzes, sheathings of
thin wood-work, bowls, and other vessels, or in the rarer remains of
ivory carvings. A number of objects of this kind, discovered during the
excavations of Nineveh, are deposited in the British Museum. The better
preserved and more easily recognizable among the ivory carvings are of
Egyptian style, and even in some instances represent Egyptian religious
ceremonies. This is also, in a measure, the case with the bronzes,
which are composed of ten parts of copper and one of tin; though a
majority of these show thicker and heavier forms, especially in the
animals, and strikingly remind one of similar utensils discovered in
Phœnicia and Cyprus. These articles must be considered either to have
been directly imported, or so slavishly copied from foreign originals
that they are at present not surely distinguishable. There can be little
doubt that the native place of the bronze vessels was Phœnicia, and
not Egypt. The former country, as proved by the repeated allusions of
Homer and other early authors, was famed in the pre-historic ages of
Greece for the manufacture of metal utensils, and especially for an
extended employment of the bronze supplied by the copper-mines of Cyprus
and the tin trade with England. When considered in connection with the
well-known extent of Phœnician commerce, this derivation of the metal
remains found at Nineveh is rendered more than probable.
[Illustration: Fig. 76.--Glazed Terra-cotta, from Nimrud.
Red. Brown. Green. Black.]
The few and unimportant vestiges of Assyrian painting add little
material to the history of art. It has already been mentioned that the
palace walls were covered with a colored facing, shown by fragments
found among the ruins to have been of painted stucco and glazed tiles.
It consisted of bands of ornament, rows of rosettes and anthemions,
woven strap-work, conventionalized mythical animals, and other forms
arranged in set regularity. This treatment was adopted especially for
the exterior and for the courts, where imposing ceremonial reliefs with
colossal figures covered the lower surface of the wall. Animals the size
of life are given in yellow upon a blue ground, such mosaic mural
decorations being formed of tiles drawn and colored with reference to
their ultimate position. (_Fig._ 64.) There are also paintings
corresponding to the reliefs of alabaster common upon the lower half of
important walls. With figures somewhat over 0.2 m. high, they represent
scenes which appear to have stood in some relation to the carved
ornaments of interior chambers. The most important of the fragments
preserved shows a king, who, returning from battle or the hunt, is about
to place to his lips a bowl handed him by a servant. (_Fig._ 76.) The
bow which he holds in his left hand rests upon the earth; a sword hangs
by his side. A eunuch with bow, quiver, and sword, and a warrior in
short dress, with lance and pointed helmet, follow him. The garments are
outlined by a broad band of yellow color, somewhat similar in effect to
the heavy leading of mediæval stained glass-work, which increases the
impression of flat stiffness peculiar to the Assyrian costumes of baggy
cloth without folds. The head, arms, and legs are drawn in simple lines.
A dark-yellow border separates the green dress from the red background,
and the brownish color of the exposed flesh. White is intermingled with
yellow in the rosettes, fringes, swords, etc.; the hair, beard, sandals,
and the pupils of the eyes are black. Other fragments illustrated by
Layard have a green background, yellow flesh, blue garments, horses,
fishes, etc., all drawn with a heavy white, or, in rare instances,
brown, outline. It would be difficult to determine whether these
pigments have preserved their original color, and whether, indeed, some
tints are not entirely lost. Chemical analysis has demonstrated that
several metallic preparations were known to the Assyrians. The yellow is
that preparation of antimony and lead which, under the name of Naples
yellow, has been supposed a modern invention; the blue is a combination
of copper and lead, also praised as a device of recent date in its
application as a flux for glazing. The white is an enamel of oxidized
tin, commonly held to have been first employed by the Arabs of Northern
Africa in the eighth or ninth Christian century; the red is a suboxide
of copper.
In regard to the style of these paintings, little can be added to that
already stated in the consideration of Assyrian sculpture. The figures
are somewhat more slender, and seem at times to betray a slight Egyptian
influence. As in that country, the tones of color within the firm
outlines are without modulation, differing only in the hues of the
substances they represent. The composition is, perhaps, more
picturesque, the figures frequently covering each other with varied
position and action. The carved slabs which served as a revetment of the
lower wall-surfaces were brought into harmony with the paintings above
them by the addition of color to the reliefs. The hair, beard, and the
pupils of the eyes were black; some parts of the dress, as the ribbons
of the tiara, the sandals, etc., red. There is no doubt that other
tints, not now recognizable, were added to the sculptures; but it must
not be held that this painting was so brilliant and decided as some
restorations represent. If the uniform effect of a completely painted
wall-surface had been desired, the carving would largely have been given
up. The best ornamental treatment of the architecturally bare surface
was given by the marked division of its height. If the light openings of
columns and pilasters, just under the ceiling, be assumed to have
existed above the high and unpierced wall, as a distinct horizontal
member crowning the enclosing mass, we can but admire this combination,
in the Assyrian palace, of superposed courses of sculptured, painted,
and architectural works.
[Illustration: Fig. 77.--Restoration of the Palace of Darius,
Persepolis.]
PERSIA.
The fall of Nineveh, instead of being despicable--according to the
common legend--from the weakness of Sardanapalus, the last Assyrian
king, deserves rather, from the heroic ruin of the monarch with his
city, to be compared to the fall of Carthage or of Jerusalem. It removed
for some time the centre of Western Asiatic power farther to the east,
beyond the Mesopotamian streams: first to mountainous Media, whose
inhabitants, through want of culture, were better fitted to destroy than
to build, and who, therefore, play almost no part in the history of art.
As the short reign of Median greatness passed away, political power
tended to the southeast, to Persia, which raised its world-renowned
kingdom upon the ruins of the Median, and stretched the boundaries of
the new empire far beyond any former compass of Western Asiatic
sovereignty. Cyrus, the first historical monarch of Persia, not only
conquered all resistance, notably that of Nebuchadnezzar and his
Babylonian dominion, and of the Lydian king Crœsus (by no means
remarkable solely on account of his great riches), but carried his
victorious arms even to the Ægean Sea; so that Asia, in so far as it was
known to Europe, was synonymous with Persia. Cambyses, successor to
Cyrus, crushed the oldest power of the world, that of the Pharaohs; and
the third Persian king crossed the Bosporos, that he might embody in the
colossal Persian empire the eastern lands of Europe and the borders of
the Pontos. Persia, by the personal greatness of some of its rulers, by
the healthy force of its original inhabitants, as well as by marked
good-fortune, thus attained a position in the history of the world
hitherto equalled by no other country; and it was by no means wanting in
a corresponding monumental expression of this advance.
The chief cities of the land--Susa, Pasargadæ, and Persepolis, for which
latter, a name known through Greek historians, we might substitute New
Metropolis of the Persians--strove, at least in their royal palaces, to
surpass the cities of the Assyrians and Babylonians. Diodoros speaks of
Persepolis as “the world-renowned royal fortress,” imposing even to the
Greeks. The thousands of years that have passed have yet left remains
sufficient for an ideal reconstruction of the whole, and a conception of
the artistic ability of the Persians may there be obtained. This is less
the case with Susa, more destroyed, and in no wise thoroughly examined.
Its site, known by the name Shush, which still clings to the ruins, is
revered by Mohammedan pilgrims as that of the tomb of Daniel, in like
manner as the location of Nineveh found traditional confirmation among
them in the Mohammedan chapel of Jonas. The remains of Pasargadæ, near
Murgab, are somewhat better preserved than are those of Susa. Beside its
palace terraces, among its other tombs, altars, etc., there rises,
nearly intact, one of the most wonderful monuments of the world--the
tomb of the great Cyrus. Most important, however, and worthy of chief
consideration, is New Pasargadæ, or Persepolis, where the massive palace
ruins near Istakr, known under the name of Chehil-Minar (forty columns)
or Takt-i-Jemshid (throne of Jemshid), have for centuries been the
wonder of travellers.
[Illustration: Fig. 78.--Plan of Persepolis.
_A._ Grand Stairway. _B._ Propylæa of Xerxes. _C._ Cisterns. _D_, _E_,
_F_, _G_. Great Hall of Xerxes. _H._ Portal between the Palaces and
Harem. _K._ Palace of Darius. _L_, _M_, _N_. Palace of Xerxes. _O._
Unrecognized Ruins. _P._ Harem. _Q._ Portal to the Court of the Harem.]
The Persians, of later development than the Mesopotamians, naturally
based their art upon the older culture of the people conquered by them.
The palaces were similarly placed upon extensive terraces, which, like
those in Nimrud, seem to have been afterwards enlarged to make room for
several royal dwellings. The palace terrace of Persepolis (_Fig._ 78)
is, as an exception, not isolated, but so placed as to employ a rocky
plateau, which, levelled partly by excavation, partly by filling,
acquired architectural character by the vertical revetment of its
borders: it abutted with one of its oblong sides upon a cliff, this
forming a background of richly carved tomb-façades. The casing of the
platform beneath the Palace of Kisr-Sargon (Corsabad) consisted of a
masonry formed of quite regularly hewn stones. At Persepolis, on the
other hand, is employed, in a similar position, a kind of Cyclopean
masonry with predominant horizontal lines--a proof that this wall does
not necessarily indicate a greater age than does a facing of hewn stone.
In spite of the close relationship of the architecture of Persia to that
of Assyria, the ruins still show in many points such a fundamental
difference that Mr. Fergusson’s nearly absolute identification of the
art of the two nations cannot be accepted, and a higher grade of
independent position, at least in architecture, must be granted to the
Persians. The Assyrian ruins showed walls and no columns; in Persia, on
the contrary, we find columns and no walls. In view of this, it is a
daring hypothesis to assume that chance has preserved here only the one,
there only the other, constructional member--that the Persian ruins
exhibit the skeleton, as it were, the Assyrian the flesh, of one and the
same architectural body, the totality of which is only to be understood
and explained by the mutual complement, the combination of the two. For
such is Mr. Fergusson’s view. The inadmissibility of transferring
Persian columns to Assyrian palaces has already been made evident.
The peculiar formation of plan recognized in the ruins of Nineveh, the
narrow and corridor-like chambers, required no interior supports. The
clumsy disproportion of the long and cramped Assyrian rooms seems rather
to have been decided by the lack of such constructive assistance; with
it, on the other hand, the Persian palace was enabled to develop freely.
The subordinate shafts in the windows of the palaces at Nineveh did not
partake of the true nature of a column, they did not serve to enlarge an
enclosed space, but were merely decorative substitutes for the piers
which elsewhere separated the openings. It is not possible to transfer
the characteristic Persian details either to these or to the columns in
antis of the Assyrian temple cellas. The sculptured reliefs mentioned
above, from which alone the columns of Assyria are known, present an
entirely different class of forms. The Persians recognized the full
importance of columnar construction in opening and enlarging enclosed
spaces as no other nation has done except the Egyptians. It is in this
that the artistic advance of the former beyond their Chaldæan and
Babylonian predecessors consists.
[Illustration: Fig. 79.--Fragment of a Base from Pasargadæ.]
[Illustration: Fig. 80.--Persian Columns with Bull Capitals.]
The columns of Persia were developed with a characteristic
conventionalization which, though not entirely without foreign
precedents, was upon the whole original, and, at least in the more
simple varieties, decidedly artistic; the capital was peculiarly adapted
to its functions. But one small fragment has been found of the ancient
remains of Pasargadæ, dating, according to inscriptions, to the epoch of
Cyrus. It is a base, and is fortunately characteristic and interesting.
(_Fig._ 79.) The tore is similar, upon the one hand, to the
plinth-mouldings of Assyrian columns; upon the other, in its detail, to
the more recent creation of the Ionic column, which was not without
connection with the art of Mesopotamia. The ornamentation consists of
shallow horizontal channellings, with sharp arrises like those of the
so-called Proto-Doric shafts of Egypt, and is closely allied to the
bases of the most ancient examples of the Ionic style. The terrace of
Persepolis, with its monuments, built during or after the time of
Darius, displays these bases only in the palaces built by that king. The
tore there occurring was placed upon two square plinths. The later
monuments of Persepolis, which, for the greater part, were built by
Xerxes, show the base to have kept pace with the further advance of the
shaft, and to have consisted of multiplied and embellished members. The
square plinth is supplanted by a beautifully curved calyx, turned
downward and ornamented by two rows of leaves--the upper rounded and
heart-shaped, the lower lanceolate. To this is sometimes added a wreath
of anthemions, which appears to have been taken from Syrian or
Phœnician models. The projecting moulding of these more elaborate
examples is diminished in size, and has lost the horizontal grooves.
The shaft, with thirty-six shallow channels, separated by sharp arrises
like those of the primitive base, rises upon the combined tore and
plinth to a height of nine times its lower diameter. It is not
inconsiderably diminished. The junction between shaft and base is
effected, as in the Ionic style, by a gentle curve, ornamented by a
small roundlet. The capital shows, instead of the floral form usual in
other countries, an animal combination, which, from the analogy of
certain gold coins of Western Asia, appears to have been a widely known
symbol. It consists of two bull’s heads and shoulders, grown together
back to back, with the front legs bent under them in a recumbent
position. The head is drawn upward, the elegantly curved neck being
ornamented by a rich chaplet. Upon the common back of the two animals
lies the chief transverse beam of the ceiling. A description of the
peculiar style of carving will be given in the section upon Persian
sculpture. It may only be here premised that the general treatment of
the animals is quite similar to that noticed in Assyria. The capital is
particularly well adapted to receive and support two ceiling timbers
crossing above it at right angles; the lower of these shows its section
upon the front of the building, and rests upon the back of the bulls;
while the epistyle beam upon it, which joins the columns and is seen in
its whole length upon the front, is supported by the heads and by the
main timber between them. This method of laying the ceiling beams was
the reverse of that followed by the architects of other nations. The
timbers of the ceiling, which run at right angles, are usually placed
upon, and not beneath, the connecting epistyle.
[Illustration: Fig. 81.--Spiral Ornaments upon Chairs.
_a._ From an Assyrian Relief. _b._ From the Vicinity of Miletos. _c._
From Xanthos. _d, e, f._ From Paintings upon Greek Vases.]
[Illustration: Fig. 82.--Columns from the Eastern Portico of the Hall of
Xerxes.]
[Illustration: Fig. 83.--Rock-cut Tomb of Darius.]
In the time of Xerxes, these simple bull capitals appear not to have
satisfied the increasing demands of luxurious elegance. Three new
members were therefore placed below them, and the entire capital became
almost as high as the remainder of the shaft, which was naturally much
curtailed by this innovation. (_Fig._ 80.) The two lower of these new
members may perhaps be counted as one--the wreath of falling leaves
being regarded as part of the calyx above it. These leaves are very
simply treated; they do not curve, and are terminated by a semicircle:
between them and the calyx there is a small egg-and-dart moulding; that
is to say, a wreath of small leaves entirely bent over. As the
derivation of this characteristic member cannot be traced to Syria, the
supposition is natural that it was derived from the Hellenic
architecture of Asia Minor, which had been fully developed in its
principal aspects since the time of Darius. The general form, as well as
the detailed decoration of the upright calyx by narrow bundles of
lotos-flowers, points so distinctly to an Egyptian model that it must,
without further question, be ascribed to the influence of that land,
which had been subjugated by the Persian Cambyses. After a repetition of
the egg-and-dart moulding, there follows above the calyx a remarkable
member of sixteen spiral rolls, as similar to the forms of Assyrian as
to those of Ionic capitals. The spirals are so placed around the oblong
kernel of the shaft that two touch upon each of its angles--thus
standing vertically, and not horizontally. The derivation of the form
appears to be owing more to Assyrian-Mesopotamian reminiscences than to
any influence of the Greek Ionic style. The remarkable vertical position
of the volutes is better explained by subordinate ornaments of the
former than by architectural members of the latter land. The decorations
upon the legs of thrones and other parts of furniture, shown by reliefs,
prove the helix to have been more frequently used by the Assyrians as
the vertical ornament of a shaft than as a horizontal coronation--a
capital. (_Fig._ 81.) That the former usage was extensive is shown by
the similar occurrence of the form upon Greek examples from Asia Minor.
The spiral, with concave or convex fluting, with ribbed and channelled
rolls, was originally double; in Persia it was transferred to a
four-sided shaft, to serve, not as a coronation, but as a vertical
ornament, as one of the three or four distinct members of the
complicated capital. The double-headed animals were placed upon it as
the termination of the column. In the mythological sculptures of
Mesopotamian lands, lions and bulls shared equally the honors of
frequent representation; and upon the capitals of Persepolis a horned
and double-headed lion was substituted for the double-headed bull. This,
however, was not in an important position, and the change is known by
only a single example--the eastern portico of the Great Hall of Xerxes.
(_Fig._ 82.) The isolated attempt was the more successful because no
other animal forms had been so well conceived and characterized by the
Orientals as the lion; that king of beasts, with open mouth and powerful
paws, was the favorite subject for decorative treatment down to the
latest times of Hellenic art. As the comparatively short fore legs of
the lion could not be bent underneath the body, but were necessarily
extended from the shoulder, the general outline of the capital was
impaired by a long and straight horizontal line just at its junction
with the shaft; and on this account the lions, notwithstanding their
more majestic heads, could not displace the traditional bulls.