| Photo. Mansell | British Museum |
| Ashur-bani-pal’s Hunting Scenes | |
But the animals which were the victims of the royal sport must clearly have been wild; sometimes they admitted of being hunted in their natural state, but in Ashur-bani-pal’s time it was evidently necessary to capture them beforehand and keep them in cages till required for the hunt. In Pl. [XIX] we see one such captive specimen emerging from his temporary prison at the instance of the attendant who has pulled up the wicker gate of the cage. The lion’s satisfaction at his release is shown by the alacrity with which he sallies forth, little conscious of the doom in front of him. Though the end seems always to have been the same, the method by which the end was accomplished varied from time to time. Thus on one occasion the king is seen thrusting his long-shafted spear into the lion’s back, himself securely mounted in his chariot; at another time he is on foot, and is almost playfully stabbing the lion in the neck with his dagger, but the more usual way—no doubt, because the safest—of dispatching big game, and lions in particular, seems to have been by means of the bow and arrow which could be brought into play at a respectful distance. In Pl. [XIX] we see a number of lions thus transfixed; their various positions, some of which are sublimely natural, while others appear rather imaginative, all speak eloquently and in moving terms of that common tragedy to which all the animal world, whether human or bestial must some day become victims,—the tragedy of death. One lion is seen transfixed by four arrows, two of which are deeply lodged in the lion’s neck, a third in the centre of the head, and the last in the middle of the back. The lion is prostrate, his four legs dragging helplessly behind and underneath his massive body, while his face bespeaks the death-agony in which he lies convulsed. Above, on the left, another animal has been incapacitated, if not mortally wounded, by two arrow wounds, one in the neck and the other in the back, while a little lower down to the right, a lioness smitten through the lungs has rolled over helplessly on her back. At the bottom of this unique scene we have another lion transfixed by some five arrows, most of which are lodged in or about the animal’s head; like the lioness he has sunk over on his back, his limbs being contorted almost beyond recognition. To the left we have the full hind-quarters of a lion who is springing up in a frenzy of rage excited by an arrow-wound in the back. Last of all in the bottom left-hand corner another lion is seen in the act of expiring as the result of his wounds. But whatever end befell the unfortunate lion, he seems to have been attended with ceremonial rites at the last, his body was conveyed home by three or four male servants, and stretched upon the ground, after which the king himself pours a libation over the silent, motionless animal, whose grandeur in death is only surpassed by his energy in life (cf. Pl. [XX]).
The large majority of the visitors to the Assyrian Saloon in the British Museum, where these masterpieces of animal reproduction are arranged, have never witnessed a lion hunt in real life, but none can go away without having an ineffaceable impression left on his mind of the grimness of such a scene, of which the reality is here so graphically portrayed. Lion-hunting was doubtless the favourite sport of the Assyrian kings, but other game also engaged the royal patronage, notably deer, wild asses and bulls. Ashur-naṣir-pal has left us a sculpture in which he is represented hunting wild bulls from his chariot, and in Pl. [XX] we have a bas-relief from Ashur-bani-pal’s palace on which a wild-ass hunt is seen in full progress. In the upper part of the scene a wild-ass lies helpless on his back, pierced by three arrows, while a fourth arrow is on the wing, though swiftly nearing its appointed goal. To the right we see another ass rushing away in hot haste before the double onslaught of dogs and arrows. To the left two dogs resembling mastiffs are busily engaged in checking the headlong course of a wild ass whose flight has already been retarded by the arrow which has pierced his fore-quarters. Below, a hound of the type already alluded to is in mad pursuit of a young foal. The foal is preceded by a full-grown ass who is turning its head solicitously, possibly in anxiety for its own safety, possibly for that of the young foal behind. The manner in which this latter action has been portrayed by the artist is surprising in its fidelity to nature and its artistic merits. To enable the reader to form a fair and correct estimate of the genius of the Assyrians in the art of animal representation it would be necessary to give reproductions of the whole series of Ashur-bani-pal’s hunting scenes, but it is hoped that sufficient has here been shown to demonstrate their extraordinary ability in this direction.
PLATE XX
Ashur-bani-pal’s Hunting Scenes: Hunting wild asses with dogs
Not only however are we indebted to Ashur-bani-pal for the animal masterpieces of Assyrian art, but also for one of the few scenes which give us a glimpse into the private and non-official life of the king (cf. Pl. [XXI]). The king is reclining on a magnificently carved couch, while his queen sits bolt upright on a chair immediately opposite; the chair is as elaborate in its way as the couch, as is also the stool upon which her feet repose. In spite of the tropical appearance of the garden in which the feast is spread, the king is covered with a rug, while the queen is clad in richly-woven robes which look anything but cool. A table is set by the side of the couch and in front of the queen’s chair, upon which are laid the royal dainties. Both their majesties are about to quaff the ambrosial nectar with which their low but capacious cups are without doubt filled, but the scene of their banquet is in itself an appetizer: the thick palm trees, the rich clusters of grapes, and the hovering birds all adding a stimulus to the royal digestive faculties. Behind the king stand two attendants with fly-flappers, and another richly carved table upon which the royal weapons are laid. The queen is similarly protected by fly-flappers, behind the bearers of which are other servants laden with oriental luxuries, while in the distance the musicians are playing their voluptuous eastern melodies. The instruments are stringed, as are most of the musical instruments portrayed on Babylonian and Assyrian bas-reliefs, though tambourines, double-pipes, cymbals, drums and trumpets were also apparently known.[96] In spite however of all these intoxicating influences, there remained one other item in the programme—an item which doubtless had the most stimulating effect of all upon the appetite of the great king, i.e. the head of Te-umman of Elam, which hangs from a tree in the king’s immediate line of vision, and no doubt was a most gratifying spectacle to his majesty.
With Ashur-bani-pal Assyrian art as well as her literature reached its climax; with him the limits of the empire were extended further than ever before; but after his reign no slow decadence, but a swift collapse set in which was alike tragic in its significance and momentous in its consequences. It is however not altogether unfitting, either in the case of empires, or in that of individuals, that when the climax is reached, and the highest possibilities are realized, life should not be prolonged for retrogressive purposes, and Assyria was in a large degree saved from this misfortune. The memory of her greatness and of her wide influence was in no way marred by a long period of decline, her time was up and her end came, but the reason was to be found rather in those indomitable circumstances of fate and external environment than in a radical and internal demoralization. We have no reliefs of the Neo-Babylonian period worth recording, with the exception of the coloured clay reliefs which we shall consider in the chapter on painting.
