he reign
of Asshur-bani-pal, the son of Essarhaddon, who appears to have been
contemporary with Gyges in Lydia, and with Psammetichus in Egypt. The
characteristics of the time are a less conventional type in the
vegetable forms, a wonderful freedom spirit, and variety in the forms of
animals, extreme minuteness and finish in the human figures, and a
delicacy in the handling considerably beyond that of even the second or
middle period. The sources illustrative of this stage of the art consist
of the plates in Mr. Layard's "Second Series of Monuments," from plate
45 to 49, the originals of these in the British Museum, the noble series
of slabs obtained by Mr. Loftus from the northern palace of Koyunjik,
and of the drawings made from them, and from other slabs, which were in
a more damaged condition by Mr. Boutcher, who accompanied Mr. Loftus in
the capacity of artist.

Vegetable forms are, on the whole, somewhat rare. The artists have
relinquished the design of representing scenes with perfect
truthfulness, and have recurred as a general rule to the plain
backgrounds of the first period. This is particularly the case in the
hunting scenes, which are seldom accompanied by any landscape
whatsoever. In processional and military scenes landscape is introduced,
but sparingly; the forms, for the most part, resembling those of the
second period. Now and then, however, in such scenes the landscape has
been made the object of special attention, becoming the prominent part,
while the human figures are accessories. It is here that an advance in
art is particularly discernible. In one set of slabs a garden seems to
be represented. Vines are trained upon trees, which may be either firs
or cypresses, winding elegantly around their stems, and on either side
letting fall their pendent branches laden with fruit. [PLATE LXVIII..
Fig. 2.] Leaves. branches, and tendrils are delineated with equal truth
and finish, a most pleasing and graceful effect being thereby produced.
Irregularly among the trees occur groups of lilies, some in bud, some in
full blow, all natural, graceful, and spirited. [PLATE LXIX., Fig. 1.]

[Illustration: PLATE 69]

[Illustration: PLATE 70]

It is difficult to do justice to the animal delineation of this period.
without reproducing before the eye of the reader the entire series of
reliefs and drawings which belong to it. It is the infinite variety in
the attitudes, even more than the truth and naturalness of any