Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/295

Gems. 263 how to give his work that high polish and finish that enabled the Greeks to express the subtlest contours of the living form. From this period onwards the artists of Mesopotamia and, in later years, those who worked for the Medes and Persians, put into use all the precious stones that were afterwards engraved by the Greeks and Romans. Their tools and processes cannot have greatly differed from those handed down by antiquity to the gem-cutters of the middle ages and the Italian renaissance. If their results w T ere inferior to those obtained by Pyrgoteles and Dioscorides, 1 it was because oriental art never had the know- ledge of the nude or the passion for beauty of form which made Greek art so original. Intaglio is only a bas-relief reversed and greatly diminished in size ; the style and spirit of contemporary sculpture are reflected in it as the objects of nature are reflected in the mirror of the human eye. For want of proper tools it may lag behind sculpture, but it will never outstrip it. The close connection between the two arts is nowhere more strongly marked than in some of the cylinders belonging to the first monarchv. Although the artist was content in most cases with mere outlines, he now and then lavished more time and trouble on his work, and gave to his modelling something of the breadth and truth that we find in the statues from Tello. These merits are seen at their best in a fine cylinder belonging to the New York Museum (Fig. 142). It represents Izdubar and his companion Hea-bani, the Hercules and Theseus of Chaldaean mythology, engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle with a wild bull and a lion, a scene which may be taken as personifying the struggle between the divine protectors of mankind on the one hand, and the blind forces of nature assisted by all the supernatural powers of evil on the other. 2 We have already had occasion to speak of Izdubar, who is always represented nude and very muscular. As for his companion, he combines the head and bust of a man with the hind quarters of a bull. 3 1 Or, more correctly, Dioscurides (Aioctkou/kS^c), according to the texts. — Ed. 2 As to the connection of the Greek Heracles with Izdubar, see a passage quoted from SAYCEby Manseli {Gazette archéologique, 1879, pp. 116, 117 ?). The New York cylinder is only 1.52 inches high. It has been slightly enlarged in our woodcut, so that its workmanship might be better shown. 3 Upon the exploits of these two individuals, and the place they occupy upon the cylinders, see Menant, Essai, &c.j pp. 66, et sea.