Fig. 126.—Wild goats. British Museum. Drawn by Wallet.
Fig. 127.—The feast of Assurbanipal. British Museum. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.
Elsewhere, on the other hand, the sculptor has furnished the beds of his reliefs with certain vegetable and floral forms chiselled with the greatest care. We may give, as an example, the kind of royal park or garden in which we saw a pair of tame lions (see above, Fig. 77). Behind the animals, to the right, there is a tree round which a vine clings and mounts. It is heavy with clusters of ripe fruit, and even the curling tendrils with which its branches end are not forgotten. On the left there is a palm tree, or, at least, its trunk. Between the vine and the palm tall flowering stems rear their heads. The artist has wished us to understand that fruits, sweet-smelling flowers, and umbrageous leafage, combined to make these gardens the most agreeable of retreats for a king fatigued with war against human enemies or the beasts of the desert. The same intention is traceable on the famous slab already figured (Vol. I. Figs. 27 and 28), which shows the king and queen at table in one of these royal gardens. We reproduce the chief group on a larger scale in order that the beauty of the execution may have a chance of making itself felt (Fig. 127). Notice the treatment of the vine that bends over the heads of the royal couple. The heads themselves have suffered, but all the rest of the plaque is in excellent condition. Notice the pattern on the royal robes, and the details of the furniture. The latter may be recognized as truthful renderings of the magnificent chairs and tables of bronze, inlaid with ivory and lapis-lazuli, of which so many fragments have been found in the Assyrian palaces. Every detail that the chisel could render has been faithfully copied. Except in colour and material, the objects themselves are before us. The fringed coverlet thrown over the king’s knees, the cushion on which he leans, the garland thrown over the arm of his couch, the system of metal uprights and cross pieces of which the queen’s throne, the king’s bed, and the small table placed between them consist, might all be restored without difficulty. The chiselled feet of all these objects resemble fir-cones in shape. In the case of the table they are connected with its body by lion’s paws. On the lower bar of the queen’s chair there is a small couchant lion.
Fig. 128.—Terra-cotta statuette. Actual size. British Museum. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.
It may be thought, perhaps with truth, that the sculptor has overdone these details, and that his figures are, in some degree, sacrificed to the decorations about them. Other examples from the same series, give a higher idea of the sculpture of this time; we may cite especially a fragment possessed by the Louvre, in which the treatment is of the skilfullest (Plate X). It represents Assurbanipal in his war-chariot at the head of his army. The chariot itself, and all the accessories, such as the umbrella and the robes of the king and his attendants, are treated with great care but they do not unduly attract the eye of the spectator. We can enjoy, as a whole, the group formed by the figures in the chariot, and those who march beside and behind it. Its arrangement is clear and well balanced; there is no crowding, the spacing of the figures is well judged and the movement natural and suggestive. The king dominates the composition as he should, and his umbrella happily gathers the lines of the whole into a pyramid. In all this there is both knowledge and taste.
The best of the Assyrian terra-cottas also belong to this period. The merit of their execution may be gathered from the annexed statuette, which comes from the palace of Assurbanipal (Fig. 128). From the staff in its hands it has been supposed to represent a king, but we know that every Assyrian was in the habit of carrying a stick with a more or less richly ornamented head, and here we find neither a tiara nor the kind of necklace which the sovereign generally wore (see Fig. 116). I am inclined to think it is the image of a priest.
In conclusion we may say that, in some respects, Assyrian sculpture was in a state of progression when the fall of Nineveh came to arrest its development and to destroy the hopes it inspired.