Fig. 115.—Archaic Assyrian cylinder (after Menant).
Fig. 116.—Assyrian cylinder. De Clercq collection (after Menant).
The cylinders of the Sargonid epoch prove a progress parallel to that of Chaldæan glyptics; the traces left by the action of the saw and the drill have disappeared to make room for the modelling of the figures, which sometimes reach a degree of suppleness true to nature. We will cite as examples a cylinder of the De Clercq collection, representing two genii in adoration before the sacred tree ([fig. 116]), and a cylinder in the British Museum ([fig. 117]) on which the god Rammanu is seen, armed with a bow and arrows, standing upon a crouching lion and receiving the homage of a pontiff. The two cylinders are very fine: on the first, extreme exactness is to be noticed in the details of the costume, and great delicacy in the features of the two genii. On the second, on the contrary, the forms have a freer and easier pose, and the scene has more life; the palm is remarkable for truth; the ibexes, above all, are absolutely pure in design; the modelling of their thighs and flanks reminds us of the lions on the Chaldæan cylinder which we admired before (see [fig. 35]); it also reminds us of the famous lioness among the sculptures of Assurbanipal’s palace ([fig. 81]), which is probably contemporary with it. Assyrian glyptics has produced nothing more highly finished; like sculpture on a larger scale, it excels in the rendering of animal forms.