architecture of the bas-reliefs and in the glazed tiles--by
anything but an artistic caprice. In some cases the rosette and the
palmette are introduced in a single picture (142).

[Illustration: FIG. 139.--Winged bulls and palmette; from Layard.]

We have ventured to supplement the scanty remains of architectural
decoration by these illustrations from another art, because all Babylonian
ornament, whether for carpets, hangings, or draperies, for works in beaten
metal, in paint or enamelled faience, is governed by the same spirit and
marked by the same taste. In every form impressed upon matter by the
ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia the same symbols, the same types, and
the same motives are repeated to infinity. The examples we have brought
together suffice to show the principal characteristics of that decoration.
It had doubtless one great defect, it was too easily separated from the
building to which it belonged; it was fragile, apt to fall, and therefore
unlikely to have any very long duration. But the architect was not to blame
for that. The defect in question was consequent on the poverty of the
material with which he had to work. Given the conditions under which he
laboured, and we cannot deny that he showed great skill in making the best
of them. He understood how to contrast wide unbroken surfaces with certain
important parts of his _ensemble_, such as cornices, plinths, and
especially doorways. Upon these he concentrated the efforts of the painter
and sculptor; upon these he lavished all the hues of the Assyrian palette,
and embellished them with the carved figures of men and gods, of kings and
genii, of all the countless multitudes who had fought and died for Assyria
and its divine protector, the unconquered and unconquerable Assur.

[Illustration: FIG. 140.--Stag upon a palmette; from Layard.]

[Illustration: FIG. 141.--Winged bull upon a rosette; from Layard.]

If, not content with this general view of Assyrian decoration, we enter
into it in detail, we shall find its economy most judiciously arranged and
understood. When the sculptor set himself to carve the slabs that enframe a
door or those that protect the lower parts of a wall, he sought to render
what he saw or imagined as precisely and definitely as possible. He went to
nature for inspiration even when he carved imaginary beings, and copied
her, in fragments perhaps, but with a loyal and vigorous sincerity.
Everywhere, except in certain pictures wi