ef. Heavy outline bands of color appeared about the object, and
the prevailing hues were yellow and blue. There was perhaps less
symbolism and more direct representation in Assyria than in Egypt.
There was also more feeling for perspective and space, as shown in
such objects as water and in the mountain landscapes of the late
bas-reliefs; but, in the main, there was no advance upon Egypt. There
was a difference which was not necessarily a development. Painting, as
we know the art to-day, was not practised in Chaldaea-Assyria. It was
never free from a servitude to architecture and sculpture; it was
hampered by conventionalities; and the painter was more artisan than
artist, having little freedom or individuality.

[Illustration: FIG. 7.--WILD ASS. BAS-RELIEF, BRITISH MUSEUM. (FROM
PERROT AND CHIPIEZ.)]

HISTORIC PERIODS: Chaldaea, of unknown antiquity, with Babylon its
capital, is accounted the oldest nation in the Tigris-Euphrates
valley, and, so far as is known, it was an original nation producing
an original art. Its sculpture (especially in the Tello heads), and
presumably its painting, were more realistic and individual than any
other in the valley. Assyria coming later, and the heir of Chaldaea,
was the

Second Empire: There are two distinct periods of this Second Empire, the
first lasting from 1,400 B.C., down to about 900 B.C., and in art
showing a great profusion of bas-reliefs. The second closed about 625
B.C., and in art produced much glazed-tile work and a more elaborate
sculpture and painting. After this the Chaldaean provinces gained the
ascendency again, and Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar, became the first
city of Asia. But the new Babylon did not last long. It fell before
Cyrus and the Persians 536 B.C. Again, as in Egypt, the earliest art
appears the purest and the simplest, and the years of Chaldaeo-Assyrian
history known to us carry a record of change rather than of progress in
art.

ART REMAINS: The most valuable collections of
Chaldaeo-Assyrian art are to be found in the Louvre and the
British Museum. The other large museums of Europe have
collections in this department, but all of them combined are
little compared with the treasures that still lie buried in
the mounds of the Tigris-Euphrates valley. Excavations have
been made at Mugheir, Warka, Khorsabad, Kouyunjik, and
elsewhere, but many difficulties have thus far rendered
systematic work impossibl