Mitchell, Lucy M.: A history of ancient sculpture (New York, 1883)

92 SCULP TURK IX WESTERN ASIA.

thus perishable, as well as uncomely, the clay was not left exposed ; but,
throughout the vast buildings, a lining was found to cover the walls from top to
bottom. In many parts, as in the ladies' retired apartments, as well as in the
magazines, stables, and kitchens, subject to hard usage, a simple stucco made
of lime was applied for this purpose, such as is still used in the Orient. Some-
times, as in the bed-chambers of the harem, the stucco was painted with ara-
besques, animals, and human beings.

But the gates, frequented by crowds, and where royalty passed in and out,
as well as the state apartments, where daily was to be seen the pomp of a great
sovereign, required other and more durable decoration. As at Nimroud, so
here were, consequently, placed alabaster monoliths of colossal size ; while slabs
of alabaster, but twenty centimeters thick, lined the royal courts and chambers
to the height of three meters. Above them, the wall and vaulted ceiling were
hidden by enamelled brick and painted stucco.

Being of so soft a material, these monoliths and slabs offered a tempting
field for the sculptor in displaying the deeds of a powerful monarch. It is not
strange, then, that twenty-six pairs of portal-bulls, each weighing 140,000 kilo
grammes (over 3,000 cwt.), were found at various gateways, and that 6,000
square meters of relief lined the palace. All this magnificence was, moreover,
the work of less than six years; for Sargon commenced building his city 711
B.C., and died 705 B.C. His son, Sennacherib, not occupying the palace, the
neglected building must soon have crumbled to a hopeless ruin, and the sculp
tures have only been preserved by the fallen clay masses. A part of these
sculptures may now be seen in the Louvre and the British Museum ; a part
have long since dissolved in the Tigris, where they sank in a storm during
removal; and still more remain among the ruins at Khorsabad.

What principle guided the sculptor at Khorsabad in adorning some gate-
ways with bulls, while he simply ran sculptured slabs around others, is not in
every case clear ; although, with regard to the city gates, it is evident that
those where horses and chariots passed in and out were finished in the simpler
manner.

One of these ornamented gates, according to the inscription, the "gate of
the south," was found by M. Place intact, its discovery throwing a flood of light
upon Assyrian sculpture in its relation to architecture. On either side of the
doorway stood, like sentinels, human-headed bulls, facing the stranger approach-
ing the city (Fig. 46) ; and within winged genii adorned each side of the pas-
sage. The arch above appeared to spring from the mitred heads of the bulls,
and the heavy clay vault to ride on their outstretched wings and the heads of
their strange winged companions. The latter, while following the movement
of the bulls, turned full front face to one passing through the gateway. Bril-
liantly enamelled bricks, in which yellow and blue predominated, faced this arch,
and represented winged beings holding cones alternating with rosettes. But