hus
given. In the fragments of Babylonian tiles brought home by travellers blue
is the dominant colour; and blue furnishes the background for those two
compositions in enamelled brick that have been found _in situ_. The blue of
Babylon seems however to have had more body and to have been darker in
shade than that of the Khorsabad tiles.

We have already referred to this inferiority in the Assyrian enamel. It may
be explained by the fact that the Assyrian architect looked to sculpture
for his most sumptuous effects; he used polychromatic decoration only for
subordinate parts of his work, and he would therefore be contented with
less careful execution than that required by his Babylonian rival. The
glazed tiles of Assyria were not, as in Chaldaea, quasi bas-reliefs. Their
tints were put on flat; the only exception to this being in the case of
those rosettes that were made in such extraordinary numbers for use on the
upper parts of walls and round doorways; in these the small central boss is
modelled in low relief (see Figs. 121 and 122).

[Illustration: FIGS. 121, 122.--Rosettes in glazed pottery. Louvre.]

These glazed bricks were chiefly used by the Assyrian architect upon
doorways and in their immediate neighbourhood.[374] M. Place found the
decoration of one of the city gates at Khorsabad almost intact.[375] The
enamel is laid upon one edge of the bricks, which are on the average three
inches and a half thick. Figures are relieved in yellow, and rosettes in
white against the blue ground. A band of green marks the lower edge of the
tiara.[376] The same motives and the same figures were repeated for the
whole length of the band. The figures are winged genii in different
postures of worship and sacrifice. They bear in their hands those metal
seals and pine cones that we so often encounter in the bas-reliefs.
Distributed about the entrance these genii seem to be the protectors of the
city, they are beneficent images, their gesture is a prayer, a promise, a
benediction. On each side of the arch, at its springing, there is one of
greater stature than his companions (Fig. 123). His face is turned towards
the vaulted passage. Upon the curve of the archivolt smaller figures face
one another in couples; each couple is divided from its neighbours by
rosettes (Fig. 124).

[Illustration: FIG. 123.--Detail of enamelled archivolt. Khorsabad. From
Place.]

The other composition is to be found on a plinth in the doorway of the
ha