Musée du Louvre
| A, B. | Diorite Statues of Gudea, Patesi of Lagash |
| C. | Diorite Head of Gudea |
| D. | Upper part of a Diorite statuette of a woman (Gudea Period) |
In Pl. [XXIII], D, however, we have the upper part of a diorite figure of a woman belonging to about the same period as Gudea, which has to a great extent lost the heavy and massive appearance so noticeable in the statues of the patesi, and possesses both grace and beauty. The dress will be considered in a subsequent chapter, and it will be sufficient to here call attention to the singularly natural manner in which the folds of the garment are represented. During the interval between the epoch associated with the name of Gudea and that rendered illustrious by Ashur-naṣir-pal and the Assyrian kings, the practice of sculpturing in the round appears to have fallen largely into desuetude, if we may judge from the extreme paucity of the material that has come down to us, and it is not till the time of the Assyrian Empire that we are able again to make a detailed study of the sculptor’s art in Mesopotamia.
One of the earliest examples of Assyrian sculpture in the round is reproduced in Pl. [XXIV], B. It is a torso of a female figure, who bears upon her back an inscription of Ashur-bel-kala, king of Assyria, whose reign may be assigned to the first half of the eleventh century B.C. It was discovered at Kouyunjik, and is now in the British Museum. The size is somewhat below that of life; but in spite of the fact that the proportions are bad, the body between the legs and arms being too short, this sculpture, when compared with the generality of Assyrian attempts to reproduce human beings, is at once striking for the natural manner in which the artist’s conception of feminine beauty is realized, and as such is entirely unique in the realm of Assyrian sculpture.
The remains of another very early Assyrian sculpture[99] in the round were discovered in the course of the German excavations at Ashur. Unfortunately the head, hands and feet of this statue are missing, but the small part of the head which is preserved, though having an abundance of hair shows no trace of the elaborate curls of later days, the beard being represented by a series of twelve or more corrugated strands, thereby recalling the Babylonian statues of the Khammurabi period. The clothing consists of a close-fitting garment made of a simple fine-textured material, and is decorated with a fringe.
Of Assyrian royal statues that of Ashur-naṣir-pal (cf. Pl. [XXIV], C) is the best preserved and the most successful. It is made of hard limestone, and measures three feet four inches in height; it was found in a broken condition along with the limestone pedestal upon which it once stood, and it now stands upon the same original pedestal in the Nimrûd Gallery of the British Museum. The total height of the statue with the pedestal is five feet eleven and a half inches. Fortunately none of the fragments of the figure were missing, and consequently it was possible to restore the statue so perfectly as to render it one of the finest Assyrian statues in existence. The king stands there, the very incarnation of impassive dignity and imperturbable majesty, and it is strange how impressive the motionless can at times be. It would perhaps be hardly true to employ such words as “life” or “animation” in attempting to describe this sculpture, but it possesses something even higher than external vigour and vitality, it has a force, an indescribable “reserve of strength,” which the absence of anything like aggressive activity only serves to enhance. The king is clad in long and elaborately made robes which reach down to his toes. The beard and hair, both of which are rich and profuse, are curled with much care and precision. The king holds in his right hand a sickle-shaped object, which is presumably meant to be a sceptre, while in his left he holds a mace with a tassel at the lower end. His left arm is concealed by the fold of his outer mantle, but the right is bare with the exception of a wrist-bracelet. The type of face bears all the acknowledged Assyrian characteristics; large, wide-open eyes, a curved nose, and the wealth of hair to which we have just referred. The proportions are fairly accurate, though the depth or thickness of the body from back to front is as usual, not sufficiently great. The king has an inscription carved upon his breast, the text of which, after having given the name and genealogy of Ashur-naṣir-pal, goes on to recount the triumphant achievements of the king in the extension of his dominion over the whole country between the river Tigris and Lebanon, and concludes by stating that he has made all the countries from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun to submit to his feet.
PLATE XXIV
