Moreover, with regard to the human form, the scope of Assyrian sculpture was greatly limited in
Fig. 79.—Assurbanipal in his chariot (Bas-relief from Kouyunjik, Louvre).
consequence of the false modesty of the East, which was in existence in ancient times as it is in our own day among the Arabs, and prevented the artist from studying the human frame in the nude and in the living model. The Assyrian, like the Arab, is always draped in his thick burnoos, and this fashion, observed with religious strictness, contributed to no small extent to the sudden arrest of the progress of art. The long linen tunic, garnished with embroideries, only allows the head, feet and fore-arm to be seen; the working dress of the slaves, or sometimes the tunic of the soldiers, descends no further than the knee; the large fringed shawl, when it is worn, envelops the body like the Arab burnoos and the Roman toga.
Fig. 80.—Sargon (Bas-relief from Khorsabad, Louvre).