| Fig. 34.— | A. (Louvre, Cat., p. 217; Déc. en Chald., Pl. 6, Fig. 3.) |
| B. (Comptes Rendus, 1907, p. 398; Délég. en Perse Mém., X, Pl. 1.) | |
| C. (Louvre, Cat., p. 227; Déc. en Chald., Pl. 8 (bis), 4.) |
In Fig. [34], A, we have an alabaster head of an early Sumerian woman; the face belongs to the same type as that to which the male heads in Pl. [XXII] conform. The ears, so prominent in the case of the clean-shaven male heads, are here entirely concealed by the tresses of hair which hang in thick horizontally streaked lines about her forehead, head and neck. The hair is kept in its place by means of a fillet fastened at the back. The large eye-holes must have at one time been inlaid, probably with lapis lazuli in the case of a woman as here. The eyebrows are sculptures in relief, and not incised as is the case in other early Sumerian sculptures.
Other early specimens of Babylonian sculpture are to be found in the various statues of Manishtusu discovered during the course of the excavations carried on by the French Mission to Susa, one of which is reproduced in Fig. [34], B. Manishtusu was a Semitic king of Kish and probably reigned about 2700 B.C.; the statue here shown is consequently one of the earliest examples of Semitic sculpture in the round as yet known, and according to De Morgan[98] is the most ancient work of art as yet discovered on the old Persian sites. Even at this early date we see traces of that Semitic conventionalism so prevalent in the later Assyrian era. The square face, the large eyes, the coiffure and the long symmetrically arranged beard here seen, all being prominent features in Assyrian representations of kings and potentates. The pupils of the eyes were black and were fixed in their sockets by means of bitumen, as was frequently the case in these early sculptures. The statue is made of alabaster, and the inscription on the back is written in archaic line characters.
This age was followed by a period during which the sculptor’s art gradually made itself master of the means at its disposal. This transition period is well illustrated by an alabaster statuette of a seated woman reproduced in Fig. [34], C. The advance which the configuration of her face shows on the archaic head in Fig. [34], A, is at once obvious: the stereotyped eyes have become less exaggerated and more natural, the lips are more womanly, the nose less obtrusive. Her long hair hangs naturally and loosely down her back, while a thick fillet encircles her head. Her long robe covers the whole of her body from neck to ankle, and she holds in her hands a round-shaped vase which probably contains a libation for the gods. This little statuette is just over seven inches high.
But it was not till the middle of the third millennium B.C. i.e. the age of Gudea, patesi of Lagash, that sculpture in the round assumed a prominent part in the artistic life of the people, and it was not till then that the sculptor seems to have regularly aspired to reproducing human figures at quasi-life size, fashioning them at the same time out of the hardest volcanic rocks. In Pl. [XXIII], A, B we have reproductions of two of the decapitated statues found by De Sarzec at Tellô. Eight of these statues, some of which are in a standing posture, while others are seated, bear inscriptions of Gudea, patesi of Lagash; one of the remaining two being inscribed with the name of his predecessor, Ur-Bau. The majority of these statues are under life-size, but the dimensions of one of them at least considerably exceed those of an ordinary man. The statue here represented (Pl. [XXIII], A) is the most artistically conceived of the series; it possesses both grace and force, and shows very little trace of the conventionalism so noticeable in later Assyrian sculptures, the feet being the only inanimate and truly conventional part of the production. The arms are strong and sinewy, but the muscles are perfectly naturally executed, and contrast very favourably with the exaggerated muscles of the royal statues of Assyria. The hands are folded in token of submission to the goddess Nin-harsag, to whom this statue was seemingly dedicated. Among the epithets applied to this goddess here, are “Lady of the Mountains,” “protectress of the town and mother of its inhabitants,” and lastly, “mother of the gods.” This statue is made of green diorite and is just over four feet high.
In Pl. [XXIII], B we have another statue of Gudea, this time seated. The chief peculiarity about this and its companion statue, both of which are in the Louvre, lies in the flat tablet which each of them carries on their knees. On one of these tablets a regular plan of Gudea’s buildings has been engraved, showing various doors, crenelated towers, and so forth, together with the carpenter’s rule and stylus, which are similarly engraved on the knee-tablet of the statue reproduced here. The most striking feature in the sculpture itself is the boldness with which the nude limbs are carved, and the nervous vitality with which they abound. This is especially noticeable in the treatment of the right arm and shoulder, which the arrangement of the mantle leaves exposed. The cartouche on the shoulder contains the name and titles of Gudea. The lengthy inscription below records that this statue has been dedicated to the goddess Gatumdug, who is styled “the mother of Shirpurla” (= Lagash), it then treats of the various rites and ceremonies with which the building of the temple of this goddess was accompanied. This statue, like the standing one in Pl. [XXIII] A, is made of diorite. Several of the heads belonging to these statues have been brought to light, one of which is seen in Pl. [XXIII], C. The head which is decked with a variegated turban is again remarkable for its strength and the boldness with which it is executed; the eyes are large and wide open, a noticeable characteristic in all Mesopotamian art, whether early or late; the eyebrows are heavy, and the chin firm, while the jaws are thick-set and make the general contour of the face square. The absence of due proportion in all these early Babylonian sculptures is at once manifest: they one and all have a more or less squat appearance, the breadth being always too great proportionally for the height, while the head is too large for the body and the latter is too thin from back to front. But when all the failings incidental to the products of an inexperienced art are duly taken into consideration, there is a certain fidelity to nature, and consequently a degree of life observable in the crudest of these early Babylonian sculptures which at once raises them to a higher level than the Assyrian statues to which they unconsciously gave birth. The accentuation of the strong lines and curves of the earlier sculptures in the later products of Assyrian times, has merely led to exaggeration, and the effect is inevitably stereotyped and unnatural.
PLATE XXIII