Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/207

Chaldean Sculpture. 177 with bas-reliefs and inscriptions. Unfortunately it had been broken into numerous pieces, and, as these have not all been recovered, it is impossible to restore it entirely. The style of its writing seems the farthest removed from the form into which it finally developed, and its symbols seem to be nearer their original imitativeness than anywhere else. " Inexperience is everywhere to be recognized in the drawing of the figures ; eyes are almost triangular and ears roughly blocked out ; the aquiline type of nose is but a continuation of the line of the forehead, Fig. 93. — Fragment of a stele ; from Tello. Height I foot. Louvre. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier. into which it blends ; the Semitic profile is more strongly marked than in the monuments of the following age." x The bas-reliefs represent strange scenes of war, of carnage, of burial. Here we find corpses arranged in line so that the head of one is touching the feet of his neighbour (Fig. 93) ; they look as if they were piled one above another, but this, we believe, is an illusion due to want of skill on the part of the artist. He 1 Heuzey, Les Fouilles de la Chald'ee, p. 16 (extracted from the JRerue archéologique for January, 1881). VOL. IL A A