SCULPTURE IN THE ROUND
For the study of early Sumerian sculpture in the round, we unfortunately have not much material at hand. As has been already stated, both the Babylonians and Assyrians excelled in bas-relief work rather than in full rounded sculpture, and what they excelled in, that they practised most; in spite of this fact however, both peoples were alive to the superiority of sculpture in the round, but the difficulties involved in producing work of this kind prevented such work being undertaken save for exceptional purposes, hence they never attained a very high degree of excellence in this department of art. Of the earlier Sumerian period we have hardly any complete
Fig. 32. (A. J. S. L., XXI, pp. 59, ff.) statues, and the paucity of such makes those that have survived the more valuable. One of the most interesting of these is that of Esar king of Adab (Bismâya), which was discovered during the course of the American excavations on that site,[97] and is now preserved in the Imperial Ottoman Museum, Constantinople (cf. Fig. [32]). It is made of marble and weighs two hundred pounds. In height it measures just under thirty-five inches, the circumference of the skirt being close upon thirty-two inches. The latter is heavily plaited and is a replica of the garment in which the Sumerians portrayed on the earliest monuments are always clad. The type of face in like manner attests its great antiquity; the bald head, the aquiline nose forming a straight line with the forehead, the triangular eye-sockets which were at one time inlaid with ivory, all being characteristic features of the most ancient Sumerian attempts at human portraiture. The king bears an inscription upon his right shoulder written in a very archaic and semi-pictorial script, from which we learn the name of the king, and also of the city over which he ruled. It was discovered at a great depth below the surface of the mound, among the ruins of a temple constructed of the small plano-convex bricks characteristic of the pre-Ur-Ninâ buildings. A particularly interesting
Fig. 33. (Déc. en Chald., Pl. I, ter. No. 3.) feature about this unique monument is that the arms are free from the body, whereas in nearly all Mesopotamian statues they are joined up to the sides. The hands are clasped in front as is the case in so many Sumerian statues and reliefs of all periods, while the feet are embedded in the pedestal to enable them to support the short, thick-set and heavy body, which was apparently a peculiarity of the Sumerian physique.
Unfortunately we have hardly any complete figures of early Sumerian women, the little stone statuette in Fig. [33] gives us however some idea of the appearance and dress of women in early Babylonia. Her features conform to the usual Sumerian type, while her long hair is tied with a fillet which surrounds her head and gathers up her flowing tresses at the back.
But the three archaic stone heads (cf. Pl. [XXII]) which were unearthed at Tellô enable us to form a somewhat more complete estimate of the artistic ability of the sculptors of that age in regard to the portrayal of the human face and head. The head on the right closely resembles the central one, both of which exhibit a more advanced style of art than that exhibited in the head on the left, which is, however, the most interesting of the three. It was discovered on the other side of the Shatt-el-Hai, the canal which connects the Tigris with the Euphrates; unlike the others, the aquiline nose is perfectly preserved, the eyes are as usual large and shaped like almonds, and were doubtless at one time inlaid with shell and coloured, while the lips betray a suppressed smile; the type of face is exactly the same as that seen on the Vulture Stele, though the details are of course more precise, as might be expected from a work in the round.
| PLATE XXIIb |
| Musée du Louvre: Déc. en Chald., Pl. 6, 1-3 |
| Archaic Limestone heads |