VINE & FIG TREES FROM ASSYRIAN SLABS BRITISH MUSEUM N.25.
It is interesting to compare this Egyptian rendering of the date palm tree with an Assyrian rendering of the same tree, though the latter is sculptured; or, again, with the Græco-Roman version at the house of Icarius. The typical and sacred tree with the Assyrians, however, was the tree of life, which became with them a formal piece of ornament. In it we seem to see, too, the original form of a type of ornament constantly recurring in the art of all the Asiatic races, and which was apparently carried by them, or from them, into Europe; reappearing in Persian, Greek, Roman, and Renascence work in all manner of variations, remaining a typical horizontal border motive to our own day.
The lotus appears in sculptured Assyrian pavements on the outer border, the open flowers alternating with the buds, as in Egyptian work. Then we have another typical and constantly recurring border motive in the rosette, which has a rich and sumptuous effect, closely filled in this way. Then comes in the palmette, or tree of life, while the centre filling, a network formed of a six-petalled flower form, again recalls the suggested textile origin of the ornamental motive of the whole, to which I have before alluded.
Other interesting and characteristic renderings of flowers and trees may be found in bas-relief upon the Assyrian alabaster slabs used as wall decorations, such as those showing the vine, the fig, the lily, and the daisy here given, the sculpture of which, in general, is remarkable not only for the combination of great power of expression and energy of action with a very dominant formalizing and ornamental and typical treatment of form, but also for great delicacy of chiselling; in one slab there is a small figure of a king in his chariot, inclosed within larger work, as finely cut almost as a gem or seal. Note, as illustrating the ornamental treatment of animal forms, so characteristic of these Assyrian or Semitic sculptures, the way the lions are carved, the masses of the hair of the manes carefully marked and ornamentally designed, the muscular lines of the face emphasized in the same ornamental manner. The result is a typical lion, stately, monumental, sculptural, and decorative, yet in no way wanting in energy of action, character, and vigour.
ASSUR BENI PAL. ASSYRIAN LION FROM BRITISH MUSEUM.
ASSUR BENI PAL. ASSYRIAN LION FROM BRITISH MUSEUM.
Nothing could be more different in spirit and style from the ordinary modern European sculptor's treatment. The Assyrian grasped the essential leonine character, but expressed it in typical and ornamental terms. The modern English, French, German, or Italian generally seeks a naturalism which struggles to escape from the conditions of the material; he seeks accidents rather than essentials, and, in his horror of formalism, tries to treat the masses of hair and mane as if he wielded the painter's brush rather than the sculptor's chisel—though it is generally modelled in clay first before it is carved. The result is loss of dignity, typical character, and monumental feeling. Alfred Stevens saw the importance of a certain formalism, and his little lion on the uprights of the outer railing of the British Museum remains unequalled, so far as I know, in modern work.[8]
The Hellenic race, the Greeks, whose art has had, and still possesses, such an influence over that of the modern world, while in their archaic period differing little in method of treatment and in use of ornament from the Asiatic races, the Assyrian and Egyptian and Persian, the elements of each of which they seemed to fuse and adapt, gradually developed a freer style, and, while never losing their monumental sense in sculpture, carried the human figure in sculpture to the greatest pitch of perfection. Their invention in purely ornamental forms was not conspicuous, nor was it needed, since they treated the human figure as their chief element in decoration. Their leading ornamental types may be traced to Asiatic prototypes—the palmette and the rosette, for instance. The scroll, perhaps, they may particularly claim to have developed, and the anthemion, from their primitive types.