=Sculpture.=--The sculpture of the Assyrian palaces is especially
admirable. Statues, truly, are rare and coarse; sculptors preferred to
execute bas-reliefs similar to pictures on great slabs of alabaster.
They represented scenes which were often very complicated--battles,
chases, sieges of towns, ceremonies in which the king appeared with a
great retinue. Every detail is scrupulously done; one sees the files
of servants in charge of the feast of the king, the troops of workmen
who built his palace, the gardens, the fields, the ponds, the fish in
the water, the birds perched over their nests or flitting from tree to
tree. Persons are exhibited in profile, doubtless because the artist
could not depict the face; but they possess dignity and life. Animals
often appeared, especially in hunting scenes; they are ordinarily made
with a startling fidelity. The Assyrians observed nature and
faithfully reproduced it; hence the merit of their art.

The Greeks themselves learned in this school, by imitating the
Assyrian bas-reliefs. They have excelled them, but no people, not even
the Greeks, has better known how to represent animals.


FOOTNOTES:

[15] A Persian song enumerates 300 different uses of the palm.

[16] Or perhaps from the east (Arabia).--ED.

[17] Recent discoveries confirm the view of a very ancient
civilization--ED.