ief glory; sculpture, and
still more painting, are subsidiary to it. Again, it is the most useful
edifice--the palace or house--whereon attention is concentrated--the
temple and the tomb, the interest attaching to which is ideal and
spiritual, are secondary, and appear (so far as they appear at all)
simply as appendages of the palace. In the sculpture it is the actual
the historically true--which the artist strives to represent. Unless in
the case of a few mythic figures connected with the religion of the
country, there is nothing in the Assyrian bas-reliefs which is not
imitated from nature. The imitation is always laborious, and often most
accurate and exact. The laws of representation, as we understand them,
are sometimes departed from, but it is always to impress the spectator
with ideas in accordance with truth. Thus the colossal bulls and lions
have five legs, but in order that they may be seen from every point of
view with four; the ladders are placed edgewise against the walls of
besieged towns, but it is to show that they are ladders, and not mere
poles; walls of cities are made disproportionately small, but it is
done, like Raphael's boat, to bring them within the picture, which would
otherwise be a less complete representation of the actual fact. The
careful finish, the minute detail, the elaboration of every hair in a
beard, and every stitch in the embroidery of a dress, reminds us of the
Dutch school of painting, and illustrates strongly the spirit of
faithfulness and honesty which pervades the sculptures, and gives them
so great a portion of their value. In conception, in grace, in freedom
and correctness of outline, they fall undoubtedly far behind the
inimitable productions of the Greeks; but they have a grandeur and a
dignity, a boldness, a strength, and an appearance of life, which render
them even intrinsically valuable as works of art, and, considering the
time at which they were produced, must excite our surprise and
admiration. Art, so far as we know, had existed previously only in the
stiff and lifeless conventionalism of the Egyptians. It belonged to
Assyria to confine the conventional to religion, and to apply art to the
vivid representation of the highest scenes of human life. War in all its
forms--the-march, the battle, the pursuit, the siege of towns, the
passage of rivers and marshes, the submission and treatment of captives,
and the "mimic war" of hunting the chase of the lion, the stag, the