Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/196

1 6b A History of Art in Chald.ea and Assyria. glaze which was found at Khorsabad by Place (Fig. 85). It is but a sketch. The modeller has not entered into any details of the form, but he has thoroughly grasped its general character. The-terra-cottas properly speaking, those that have received no glaze or enamel, are, as a rule, less carefully executed, but even in them we can perceive, though in a less degree, the certainty of eye, the same promptitude in seizing and rendering the special physiognomy of an animal. We feel this very strongly in what is by no means the work of a skilful modeller, the dog figured below (Fig. 86). The head and fore quarters of one of the mastiffs of the bas-reliefs may here be recognized (see Fig. 72). Fig. 85. — Recumbent goat. Enamelled earthenware. Actual size. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier. The same desire for precision, or rather comprehension, of form, is to be found even in those imaginary beings which the artists of Chaldaea and Assyria took such pleasure in multiplying. Although in their fantastic creations they brought together features belonging to animals of totally different classes, they made a point of drawing those features with the greatest precision. This is well illustrated by an object in the Luynes collection (Fig. 87). Nowhere is the arbitrary combination of forms having nothing in common pushed farther than here. A ram's horns grow on a bull's head, which, again, has a bird's beak ; the body, the tail, the fore paws are those of a lion, while the hind legs and feet