Fig. 62.—Statue in the hareem at Khorsabad (after Place).
The Atlantes found in front of the enamelled walls of the hareem at Khorsabad seem to have been employed in the structure as true columns; on their head-dress they support a square plinth which bears witness to their architectural function; their figures are of more than human stature. From the sacred vase which they press reverently to their breast, and which we have already seen in Chaldæa, flow four streams, which recall the four rivers of Paradise in Genesis; two of these liquid jets fall directly upon their feet, while the two others, rising over their shoulders, fall down their back to their feet in slightly undulating bands.[36]
The scenes upon the bas-reliefs in the interior of the palace chambers sometimes represent processions in which deities, standing or seated, are carried upon litters by priests or slaves ([fig. 114]): so there were statues at Nineveh. It is doubtful, however, whether these discoveries give any other impression of Assyrian statuary than that which we have described.
Fig. 63.—Stela of Samsi-Rammanu (British Museum).
Instead of statues, the Assyrians often erected stelæ and obelisks—a kind of monument which holds, so to speak, the middle place between statues and bas-reliefs. Among the stelæ the most finished type is that of King Samsi-Rammanu III. (B.C. 822—809). It is a monolith of slightly trapezoidal form, rounded in the upper part. The sides are covered with a cuneiform inscription which relates year by year the military exploits of the prince. On the anterior surface, surrounded by a border which forms a frame, the king, in high relief and seen in profile, stands in adoration before the planetary symbols. It is clear at the first glance that the artist has been bolder than he would have been in dealing with a statue in the round. The feet and arms are freer and not held so closely to the figure; far from treating the details of the costume roughly, he takes pleasure, on the contrary, in laying exaggerated stress upon them.
In the British Museum are small stelæ of a later date, bearing figures of Assur-bani-pal (B.C. 668-666). They show the king holding a basket upon his head, in the same attitude as the early Canephorœ of Chaldæa (see above, p. 37, [fig. 25]).