Fig. 107.—Foot of a piece of furniture. De Vogüé collection.
side ([fig. 104]) is occupied by a monster with four wings and eagle’s claws, looking over the top of the plaque; on the other side ([fig. 105]) the monster’s head is seen, and under it scenes arranged in four rows: first the symbolical figures of the stars, then a procession of seven creatures dressed in long robes and having the heads of various animals: these are the heavenly genii called Igigis. Below this we witness a funeral scene: two creatures with human bodies combined with the head and body of a fish, like the god Oannes, stand by a bed on which a corpse is laid out, swathed in its mummy-clothes; near them stand two monsters like the demons which appear in a battle scene belonging to the campaigns of Assur-nasir-pal, and, of larger size, on the walls of Assurbanipal’s palace; they face one another in the same attitude here as there, and seem to be disputing or quarrelling. The lowest row shows a stream of water in which are fish. In a boat is a kneeling horse; on his back is a monster holding serpents in his hands; lion-cubs are springing forwards towards him; another monster stands on the brink of the water; in the background are trees and fragments of different kinds, looking like the remains of a banquet. There is some artistic merit in several portions of this curious scene. The monster on the other side is boldly designed, and his form is vigorous and supple.
In the chiselling of a royal standard ([fig. 106]), the artist really attained to the highest technical skill: the bulls’ heads and the lions’ heads arranged along the pole are masterpieces of taste, and might be proposed as models at the present day. In the palaces fragments of thrones have been found formed of bronze plating. One of the most remarkable pieces, found at Van, belongs to M. de Vogüé ([fig. 107]); the deep sculpture in the claws of the crouching lion reminds the spectator of a bronze statuette from Tello ([fig. 26]).
§ III. Wood and Ivory.
No people of antiquity carried as far as the Chaldæo-Assyrians their taste for elegant furniture, which is as delicately sculptured among them as the most precious bronze utensils. We shall never know, doubtless, except through the testimony of literature, what that carved wood-work was, and what those ceilings of cedar were, to which the prophets of Israel allude with such jealous enthusiasm, and which the kings boast of having had executed, speaking to us in their inscriptions of palaces in which “the gates are of ebony, with fittings of silver plating and polished iron, the pillars of cypress-wood, the posts of cedar carved by skilful craftsmen, and coated with plates of wrought metal.” But the bas-reliefs place before our eyes wooden furniture in which the superiority of the Assyrian genius is conspicuous, and which reveal to us a people gorged with wealth, among whom luxury in furniture holds an important place. The animal and vegetable kingdoms are turned to profit by the craftsmen with astonishing skill in the decoration of the tables, stools, beds, tripods, umbrellas and fly-flaps. At every opportunity lions’ heads and claws, goats, panthers and bulls occur, fancifully arranged, but always in perfect harmony and excellent taste; flowers, festoons, undulating and interlacing lines, rosettes and geometrical figures are all found in endless variety and in perfect equilibrium; nowhere has such work been better done, neither in Egypt nor in Greece.
The bas-relief ([fig. 77]), which represents Assurbanipal drinking with one of his wives, shows us some of the furniture of a royal palace. The prince reclines upon a divan, the queen sitting upon a chair, with a stool under her feet; before them is a table. Are not the sculptured couch, the table with its feet carved in the form of lions’ claws, and the chair, lavishly decorated with sculpture and ivory ornaments, as rich and as skilful in workmanship as any such objects to be found in European drawing-rooms? Another bas-relief ([fig. 108]) shows a tent erected in the open plain during a military expedition; it is simply the stables, as it seems. Notice the elegance of the wooden pillars, the shafts of which are decorated with geometrical designs, and terminate in floral ornaments on which slender kids, ready to spring, are poised. Wood formed the framework of these chairs, coffers, and shrines, but disappeared more or less completely under the bronze or gold plating, the incrustations of ivory, coloured glass, lapis lazuli, and brilliant stones, or, lastly, the embroidered rugs and the carpets. In the camp before Lachish, Sennacherib sits upon a throne, the sides of which are composed of three rows of figures, raising their arms to sustain the bars of the chair.