DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4921#0024
xxiv
INTRODUCTION.
technical traditions, strove to impart to its designs a freedom in the general construction of them;
together with a degree of vitality and realism of action which seems to have been peculiarly
its own.
The vases of this class of decoration seem all to be of one shape, an cenochoe of simple
form, with large body and a mouth which somewhat rudely suggests the head of a bird with an
eye on each side, separated by small concentric circles. Were we to choose from among them
the one which most plainly indicates an Assyrian original, we should name a well-known
specimen in the British Museum,* on which we see an Assyrian chariot being driven at speed,
while the principal person in the chariot is in the act of drawing his bow against some unrepre-
sented enemy behind him. The idea is that of an Assyrian king engaged in war or in the chase.
The chariot is Assyrian in shape and decoration,! while the tablet on the side of the horse can
only be meant for a cuneiform tablet. But the faces of the two persons in the chariot are not in
the least Assyrian. They are purely Cypriote. J Though the chariot is doubtless intended for a
biga with two horses, only one horse is given by the painter. It is drawn rudely enough, and
yet it is clearly an Assyrian horse, such as may be seen very frequently on the reliefs from
the palace of Sardanapalus now in the British Museum. A moment's comparison with the
two horses on Figs. 963 and 969 respectively will show the difference, and yet these two
vases may very well belong to the same series and the same epoch as the British Museum
specimen.
Having mentioned the two horses on Figs. 963 and 969 we hasten to add that each
serves as a mount for a horseman. In the one case the painter has not known what to do with
the legs of the rider and has left them out. In the other his instinct against disturbing the out-
* Engraved in Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de I'Art, iii., pp. 716, 717.
f The scale pattern on the body of the chariot compares admirably with scale patterns on the terra-cotta statues found at
Salamis, as to which Mr. Munro (Hellenic journal, xii., p. r5r) quotes from Herodotus passages which speak of the scale armor worn
by the Persians, referring also to older Assyrian sculptures where the same patterns occur.
t Mr. Munro, ibid., speaking of the terra-cotta statues, says : " But the likeness to Assyrian work is only in externals ; the
features are very far from Semitic, although equally far from the Greek idea—are in fact thoroughly Cypriote."
INTRODUCTION.
technical traditions, strove to impart to its designs a freedom in the general construction of them;
together with a degree of vitality and realism of action which seems to have been peculiarly
its own.
The vases of this class of decoration seem all to be of one shape, an cenochoe of simple
form, with large body and a mouth which somewhat rudely suggests the head of a bird with an
eye on each side, separated by small concentric circles. Were we to choose from among them
the one which most plainly indicates an Assyrian original, we should name a well-known
specimen in the British Museum,* on which we see an Assyrian chariot being driven at speed,
while the principal person in the chariot is in the act of drawing his bow against some unrepre-
sented enemy behind him. The idea is that of an Assyrian king engaged in war or in the chase.
The chariot is Assyrian in shape and decoration,! while the tablet on the side of the horse can
only be meant for a cuneiform tablet. But the faces of the two persons in the chariot are not in
the least Assyrian. They are purely Cypriote. J Though the chariot is doubtless intended for a
biga with two horses, only one horse is given by the painter. It is drawn rudely enough, and
yet it is clearly an Assyrian horse, such as may be seen very frequently on the reliefs from
the palace of Sardanapalus now in the British Museum. A moment's comparison with the
two horses on Figs. 963 and 969 respectively will show the difference, and yet these two
vases may very well belong to the same series and the same epoch as the British Museum
specimen.
Having mentioned the two horses on Figs. 963 and 969 we hasten to add that each
serves as a mount for a horseman. In the one case the painter has not known what to do with
the legs of the rider and has left them out. In the other his instinct against disturbing the out-
* Engraved in Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de I'Art, iii., pp. 716, 717.
f The scale pattern on the body of the chariot compares admirably with scale patterns on the terra-cotta statues found at
Salamis, as to which Mr. Munro (Hellenic journal, xii., p. r5r) quotes from Herodotus passages which speak of the scale armor worn
by the Persians, referring also to older Assyrian sculptures where the same patterns occur.
t Mr. Munro, ibid., speaking of the terra-cotta statues, says : " But the likeness to Assyrian work is only in externals ; the
features are very far from Semitic, although equally far from the Greek idea—are in fact thoroughly Cypriote."