The interior decorations of the Assyrian palaces is de- scribed by Ezekiel, himself a captive in Assyria and an eye-witness of their magnificence (xxiii, 14, 15): "She saw men of sculptured workmanship upon the walls; likenesses of the Chaldeans pictured in red, girded with girdles upon their loins, with colored ilowing head- dresses upon their heads, with the aspect of princes all of them" (Layard, Nin. and its Rem. ii, 307) ; a descrip- tion strikingly illustrated by the sculptured likenesses of the Assyrian kings and warriors (see especially Botta, Mon. de Nin. pi. 12). The mystic figures seen by the prophet in his vision (ch. i), uniting the man, the lion, the ox, and the eagle, may have been suggested by the eagle-headed idols, and man-headed bulls and lions (by some identified with the cherubim of the Jews), and the sacred emblem of the "wheel within wheel"
Assyrian Winged Globe,
by the winged circle or globe frequently represented in the bass-reliefs (Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, ii, 455).
V'l. Ninevite Arts. — The origin of Assyrian art is a subject at present involved in mystery, and one which offers a wide field for speculation and research. Those who derive the civilization and political system of the Assyrians from Babylonia would trace their arts to the same source. One of the principal features of their architecture, the artificial platform serving as a sub- structure for their national edifices, may have been taken from a people inhabiting plains perfectly flat, such as those of Shinar, rather than an undulating country in which natural elevations are not uncommon, such as Assyria proper. But it still remains to be proved that there are artificial mounds in Babylonia of an earlier date than mounds on or near the site of Nineveh. Whether other leading features and the details of Assyrian architecture came from the same source, is much more open to doubt. Such Babylonian edifices as have hitherto been explored are of a later date than those of Nineveh, to which they appear to bear but little resemblance. The only features in com- mon seem to be the ascending stages of the temples or tombs, and the use of enamelled bricks. The custom of panelling walls with alabaster or stone must have originated in a country in which such materials abound, as in Assyria, and not in the alluvial plains of southern Mesopotamia, where they cannot be obtained except at great cost or by great labor. The use of sun-dried and kiln -burned bricks and of wooden columns would be common to both countries, as also such arrangements for the admission of light and exclusion of heat as the climate would naturally suggest.
In none of the arts of the Assj^rians have any traces hitherto been found of progressive change. In the architecture of the most ancient known edifice all the characteristics of the style were already fully developed ; no new features of any importance seem to have been introduced at a later period. The palace of Sennacherib only excels those of his remote predecessors in the vast- ness of its proportions, and in the elaborate magnificence of its details. In sculpture, as would probably be the case in painting also, if we possessed the means of com- parison, the same thing is observable as in the remains of ancient Egypt. The earliest works hitherto discov- ered show the result of a lengthened period of gradual development, which, judging from the slow progress made by untutored men in the arts, must have extended over a vast number of years. They exhibit the arts of the Assyrians at the highest stage of excellence they probably ever attained. The only change we can trace, as in Egypt, is one of decline or " decadence." The latest monuments, such as those from the palaces of Esarhaddon and his son, show perhaps a closer imita- tion of nature, especially in the representation of ani- mals, such as the lion, dog, wild ass, etc., and a more careful and minute execution of details than those from the earlier edifices; but they are wanting in the sim- plicity yet grandeur of conception, in the invention, and in the variety of treatment displayed in the most an- cient sculptures. This will at once be perceived by a comparison of the ornamental details of the two periods. In the older sculptures there occur the most graceful and varied combinations of flowers, beasts, birds, and other natural objects, treated in a conventional and highly artistic manner; in the later there is only a constant and monotonous repetition of rosettes and commonplace forms, without much display of invention or imagina- tion (comp. Layard, Mon. of Nin. 1st ser., especially pi. 5,8,43-48,50; with 2d sct., juissim ; and with Botta, Monumens de Ninive). The same remark applies to an- imals. The lions of the early period are a grand, ideal, and, to a certain extent, conventional representation of the beast— not very different from that of the Greek sculptor in the noblest period of Greek art (Layard, Mon. of Nin. 2d ser., pi. 2). In the later bass-reliefs, such as those from the palace of Sardanapalus III, now
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in the British IMuseum, tlie lions are more closeh^ imi- tated from nature without any conventional elevation; but what is gained in truth is lost in dignity.
The same may be observed in the treatment of tlie human form, though in its representation the Assyrians, like the Egyptians, would seem to have been at all times more or less shackled by religious prejudices or laws. For instance, the face is almost invariably in profile, not because the sculptor was unable to represent the full face — one or two examples of it occurring in the bass-reliefs — but probably because he was bound by a generally received custom, through which he would not break. No new forms or combinations appear to have been introduced into Assyrian art during the four or five centuries, if not longer period, in which we are ac- quainted with it. We trace throughout the same eagle- headed, lion-headed, and fish-headed figures, the same winged divinities, the same composite forms at the door- ways. In the earliest works, an attempt at composition, that is at a pleasing and picturesque grouping of the figures, is perhaps more evident than in the later — as may be illustrated by the lion-hunt from the N.W. palace, now in the British ]Museum (Layard, Mon. of Nin. pi. 10). A parallel may in many respects be drawn between the arts of the Assyrians from their earliest known period to their latest, and those of Greece from Phidias to the Roman epoch, and of Italy from the 15th to the 18th century.