Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/152

150 A History of Art in Challxea and Assyria. is a compromise between " the round " and the bas-relief of a very original and peculiar character. Looked at from in front these lions and bulls seem to be independent statues ; the head, the chest, the legs stand out with as much freedom and amplitude of development as in nature ; but step a little to one side, to the right or the left as the case may be, and their aspect will change. You will then see that only the fore-part of the animal is disengaged from the block of alabaster or limestone in which it is cut, the rest of the body remains imprisoned in its substance. The contours alone are indicated, in low relief, on the two sides of the ponderous slab. Thus we have half, or rather a quarter, of the statue standing out from sixteen to twenty inches in front of the slab on which Fig. 63. — Prisoners. From the palace of Sennacherib ; from Layard. the sides are shown in silhouette. It looks as if the image had made an effort to shake itself clear of the mass of stone and had only partially succeeded. We find ourselves wondering whether, if Nineveh had not perished and the development of her art had gone on without interruption, these great beasts would not have ended by conquering their liberty and winning for themselves an existence independent of the walls to which they were attached. But the nature of the material employed says no — alabaster is too soft, and the legs of the lions and bulls could not support their massive bodies without assistance. There are other peculiarities in these images. Looked at from jn front they appear stationary, their two fore-feet being on the same plane and close together ; any other arrangement would