Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/17

A HISTORY OF ART IN CHALDjEA AND ASSYRIA CHAPTER I. CIVIL AND MILITARY ARCHITECTURE. § i . General Character of the Mesopotamian Palace and History of the Excavations. As every student of Assyro-Chaldsean art has remarked, the best preserved of its monuments are the palaces. They alone are represented by ruins in such a condition that restora- tions may be successfully attempted, not only so far as their general arrangements are concerned but even in minor details. The preponderant part played by the ruins of palaces in the history of Assyrian architecture is thus acknowledged by all, but it has sometimes been explained by reasons that will not bear examination. " Less religious or more servile than the Egyptians and the Greeks, they made their temples insignificant in comparison with the dwellings of their kings, to which in- deed the temple is most commonly a sort of appendage. In the palace their art culminates— there every effort is made, every ornament lavished. If the architecture of the Assyrian palaces be fully considered, very little need be said on the subject of their other buildings." 1 1 Rawlinson The Five Great Monarchies, &c, (4th edition), vol. i. p. 278. VOL. IL B