The country which forms a setting for this scene is depicted with the same simplicity we find later in the Chaldæan and Ninevite sculptures, and may be compared more especially with the Chaldæan work on the Vulture Stela found by M. de Sarzec at Tello (see pp. 25, 26, figs. 11, 12, 13). An enormous cone, with various undulations surrounding it, represents the mountainous country that is pervaded by the army of Naram-Sin. A few trees suggest the forest, superposed registers take the place of perspective. The figure of the king is colossal, to assert his superiority—a convention possessed by Chaldæan art, in common with the art of Egypt and Assyria. His calm attitude indicates that he has gained the victory without the slightest difficulty. On him, thus figured after the manner of a Greek hero as a demi-god, the artist has concentrated his principal efforts; it is he on whom attention must be centred. His body is well proportioned and well drawn, although stiffened into a conventional attitude, the eye is large, the nose short, the beard silky and flowing long over the breast, and the working of the muscles is powerful and remarkably realistic.
It may be objected that the figure is too narrow, and we should consider it altogether too slender, were it not that the same defect appears in the other figures.
“The only defensive armour worn by Naram-Sin,” remarks M. de Morgan, is a casque. This is a pointed cap, ogive in form, which rests on a band surrounding the forehead. This band has two pointed pads reaching to the top of the cap—one in front, the other behind—and is adorned with two horns, whose curves harmonise with the outline of the head-dress. A metal screen falls over the nape of the neck, protecting the neck and shoulders. With his left arm the king is clasping to his breast his bow and battle-axe, in the right hand he holds an arrow, hesitating as the suppliants kneel before him, whether to deal one more blow with his weapons....
“Naram-Sin fought half naked, wearing only one tight narrow garment, which affords full value to all the parts of his body.
“The tunic, crossed on the chest, is embroidered at the collar; it is drawn tightly round the body and knotted at the side. Two long folds fall below the knee; on the neck is an amulet; heavy bracelets are on the wrists, and a long girdle round the waist. The legs are bare, and on the feet are sandals with flat soles, similar to those worn at the present day by many Orientals, fixed on by straps passed between the toes, and fastened together above the ankle.”
On close examination it will be seen that the two groups of warriors depicted, the victors and the vanquished, clearly indicate their distinguishing characteristics, from the ethnical and anthropological point of view. The first—the conquerors—have the Semitic profile, while the second—the conquered—have a profile approaching the Negritic type. Thus, in this carefully sculptured piece of so remote a date, we find realism, which is most minute in detail, associated with most fantastic conventions as regards the general arrangement of the composition—a double characteristic which, as we have repeatedly maintained, has always remained the original stamp of oriental art.
The ethnic peculiarities of the Negrito race are even more strikingly indicated on a fragment of bas-relief which represents the bust of some person, nude, bearded, with a small cord tied round the head ([fig. 247]). What living realism there is in this lean body, bony and loose jointed! What close study of nature in the knitting of the muscles, the crisp thick beard, the enormous projecting lips, the nose with its distended cartilages, and the disproportionate eye presented full face! In all this is there not an amount of character which bespeaks a sincere art, observant of nature, and capable of rendering it with brutal frankness?
