DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0110
78
SCULPTURE IN WESTERN ASIA.
absence of these details in Egypt. In the face is evident the most vigor of
artistic rendition, as seen in the curious head in Fig. 40, found near the great
mound. Here the heavy head-gear is of a stuff which gives the impression of
curled hair. It is not impossible that this is an imitation of a kind of sheepskin,
still extensively used in Persia for men's bonnets, and called in European trade
Astrakhan. M. de Sarzec tells us, that Christian priests of the Chaldaean
church in the neighborhood of his excavations still wear a turban made of a
black stuff, which has the curled appear-
ance of this ancient head-dress. How
square and firm the proportions of the
face ! The eye, that feature which always
caused the ancient sculptor the most diffi-
culty, is here not obliquely set; nor are
its lids undecided, but clearly defined, and
widely open, giving the face an agreeable
expression. The nose seems to have been
arching, but not so curved as that met
with in Assyrian sculptures; nor is that
brutal fierceness in detail here seen which
we find in those later works. There seems
in these features, indeed, a near kinship
to the straightforward simplicity of archaic
Greek faces, and, in the pose of the feet,
a striking similarity to that of the old
statues found at Miletos, and now in the
British Museum.
Besides these vigorous sculptures are
those which show much greater elabora-
tion on the part of the sculptor. In the
latter the old realism, as seen in the tur-
baned head and the seated architect, dis-
appears ; and the eyes are placed obliquely. The shorn heads and beardless
faces give place to very carefully curled hair and beards, like the over-fine
coiffure of Assyrian kings and warriors. But the finesse of execution about
these fragments partly makes amends for the loss of naturalness.
In addition to these monuments in stone from palace or temple, M. de
Sarzec discovered, in graves, others in bronze, which have cuneiform inscrip-
tions, a fact indicating their early and not Greek or Parthian origin, as might
be inferred from the number of late graves also occupying the soil. In the
plain, M. de Sarzec discovered four cubes of masonry composed of large bricks
fastened together with bitumen, the cubes measuring eighty centimeters across
the face. Within these cubes he found a cavity filled with yellowish sand, in
Fig. 41.
Statue of an Architect, found at Tello.
Louvre.
SCULPTURE IN WESTERN ASIA.
absence of these details in Egypt. In the face is evident the most vigor of
artistic rendition, as seen in the curious head in Fig. 40, found near the great
mound. Here the heavy head-gear is of a stuff which gives the impression of
curled hair. It is not impossible that this is an imitation of a kind of sheepskin,
still extensively used in Persia for men's bonnets, and called in European trade
Astrakhan. M. de Sarzec tells us, that Christian priests of the Chaldaean
church in the neighborhood of his excavations still wear a turban made of a
black stuff, which has the curled appear-
ance of this ancient head-dress. How
square and firm the proportions of the
face ! The eye, that feature which always
caused the ancient sculptor the most diffi-
culty, is here not obliquely set; nor are
its lids undecided, but clearly defined, and
widely open, giving the face an agreeable
expression. The nose seems to have been
arching, but not so curved as that met
with in Assyrian sculptures; nor is that
brutal fierceness in detail here seen which
we find in those later works. There seems
in these features, indeed, a near kinship
to the straightforward simplicity of archaic
Greek faces, and, in the pose of the feet,
a striking similarity to that of the old
statues found at Miletos, and now in the
British Museum.
Besides these vigorous sculptures are
those which show much greater elabora-
tion on the part of the sculptor. In the
latter the old realism, as seen in the tur-
baned head and the seated architect, dis-
appears ; and the eyes are placed obliquely. The shorn heads and beardless
faces give place to very carefully curled hair and beards, like the over-fine
coiffure of Assyrian kings and warriors. But the finesse of execution about
these fragments partly makes amends for the loss of naturalness.
In addition to these monuments in stone from palace or temple, M. de
Sarzec discovered, in graves, others in bronze, which have cuneiform inscrip-
tions, a fact indicating their early and not Greek or Parthian origin, as might
be inferred from the number of late graves also occupying the soil. In the
plain, M. de Sarzec discovered four cubes of masonry composed of large bricks
fastened together with bitumen, the cubes measuring eighty centimeters across
the face. Within these cubes he found a cavity filled with yellowish sand, in
Fig. 41.
Statue of an Architect, found at Tello.
Louvre.