Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/237

Assyrian Sculpture. 207 if an action or campaign had been fought in a mountainous country, he made use of a kind of lattice-work or reticulation, which every spectator thoroughly understood (see Vol. I. Figs. 39 and 43) ; if among forests, he introduced numerous trees among his figures. He made little attempt to distinguish between one kind of tree and another, but in most cases employed forms as conventional as that by which he indicated hills (Fig. j 14). One of the chief merits and most striking features of Assyrian sculpture is, then, its power of selection, its rejection of all that Fig. 114. — Tree on a river bank ; from Layard. is superfluous, its comprehension, in fact, of the true spirit and special conditions of the art. The field has none of those encumbering accessories which, under the pretext of furnishing and defining, only serve, so to speak, to take away air and elbow- room from the figures. When certain complementary features are required to make the subject clear, the sculptor introduces them, but he never gives more than is strictly necessary. He never gives way to the temptation to exaggerate such details, or treats them as if they had an interest and importance of their own. Such sobriety found its reward. His work no doubt remained faulty