Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/179

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

The Pai.ace. Eyuk. i6i localities. This applies with equal force to the foundation wall ; and we have no reason to suppose that it differed in essentials from that of the mother city. The fountain prevented our ascertaining the whole extent of the sculptured stones to the right hand of the entrance (see plan). No such impediment exists on the left, where our diggings uncovered the whole plane and enabled us satisfactorily to estab- lish that they continued on each side of the gateway some three Fig. 328.— Eyuk. Bas-relief. Plate LVI. English feet above ground. A disposition, it will be remembered, invariably selected by the Assyrian architect, in order to invest the facade of his palace with the utmost possible air of grandeur. It was calculated to strike the imagination of the beholder and impress him with the awful majesty of the sovereign, whose image formed the central figure about the gateway, amidst his protecting deities, the grandees, and chief officials that composed his court. The figured decoration at Eyuk, though different, occupies the same position, and forms part of the same constructive mode of enrichment — the man-headed bulls and divine lions that guard vol.. II.