Identifier: fivegreatmonarch011862rawl (find matches)
Title: The five great monarchies of the ancient eastern world; or, The history, geography, and antiquites of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, and Persia
Year: 1862 (1860s)
Authors: Rawlinson, George, 1812-1902
Subjects: Mauritius Export Development and Investment Authority History, Ancient
Publisher: London, J. Murray
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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be instanced as quite free from this dispropor-tion. It is very observable, however, in another of the royal statues recently reco-vered,^ as it is also in the niono-htli bulls and lions universally.Otherwise, the proportions ofthe figures are commonly cor-rect. They bear a resemblanceto the archaic Greek, especiallyto that form of it which we findin the- sculptures from Bran-chidse. They have just the samerudeness, heaviness, and stiftformality. It is difficult to judgeof their execution, as they havemostly sufiered great injuryfrom the hand of man, or fromthe weather; but the royalstatue here represented, which isin better preservation than anyother Assyrian work in theround that has come downto us, exhibits a rather highfinish. It is smaller than life,being about three and a halffeet high : the features are ma-jestic, and well marked; thehair and beard are elaboratelyand hands are well shaped, andThe dress is fringed elaborately,and descends to the ground, concealing all the lower
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statue of Sardiuiapalus 1.(from Nimrud). curled; the armsfinished with care. ^ See Ijixyard, Nineveh and its Jie-mains, vol. ii. ))p. 51, 52. ^ Layard, Nineveh and Bahylvn, p. 361. Tins statue is also in theBritish Museum. Chap. VI. CLAY STATUETTES. 425 part of tlie fignre. The only statues recovered besidesthese are two of the god Nebo, brought from Nimrud,*a mutilated one of Ishtar, or Astarte, found at Koyun-jik, and a tolerably perfect one of Sargon, which wasdiscovered at Idalium, in the island of Cyprus.^ The clay statuettes of the Assyrians possess evenless artistic merit than their statues. They are chieflyimages of gods or genii, and have most commonlysomething grotesque in their ajjpearance. Amongthe most usual are figures which represent eitherMylitta (Beltis), or Ishtar.^ They are made in afine terra cotta, which has turned of a pale red inbaking, and are coloured with a cretaceous coating, soas greatly to resemble Greek pottery. Another typeis that of an old man, bearded,

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