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Dơnload A Ming Society John W. Dardess Full Chapter
Dơnload A Ming Society John W. Dardess Full Chapter
Dơnload A Ming Society John W. Dardess Full Chapter
Dardess
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one among the mutilated statues, the other in the ruins of a
neighbouring building. The material is similar, a very hard and dark
igneous rock. The execution corresponds exactly with that of the
torsos, to one of which the first named head may perhaps have
belonged.
M. de Sarzec tells us that these statues were found in the great
edifice at Tello, almost all on the soil of the central court.[208] Some
are standing, others seated;[209] we give an example of each type
(Plate VI., Figs. 96 and 98). In these effigies we may notice an
arrangement that we have more than once encountered in Assyrian
reliefs, but which has never, so far as we know, been employed in
the arts of any other people. “All these statues, without exception,
have their hands folded within each other and placed against their
chests, an attitude still used in the East to mark the respectful
attention of the servant awaiting his master’s orders. If, as we have
every reason to believe, these figures were placed in a sacred
inclosure, in front of the images of the gods or of the symbols that
recalled their power, this attitude of submission and respect became
one of religious veneration (Fig. 97).”[210]
At Nimroud and Khorsabad this expressive gesture is sometimes
given to eunuchs in the presence of their masters, sometimes to
kings when standing before the effigies of their gods. It is thoroughly
well-fitted for those votive statues that proclaim themselves in their
inscriptions to be offerings to the deity. In consecrating an image of
himself on the threshold of the sanctuary, the king assured the
perpetuity of his prayers and acts of homage; he remained for ever
in an attitude of worship before his god—in an attitude whose calm
gravity was well calculated to suggest the idea of a divine repose to
which death was the passport.
Fig. 96.—Statue; from Tello. Height 37 inches.
Louvre. Drawn by Bourgoin.
The chief point of interest for us lies in the execution of these
statues. They embody a very sensible progress. Art has thrown off
the hesitations of its first youth and attacks the stubborn material
with much certainty and no little science; and yet the most striking
quality is less the successful grappling with a mechanical difficulty,
than the feeling for nature and the general striving for truth; a striving
which has not been discouraged by the resistance of the material.
This resistance has resulted in a method that makes use of wide,
smooth surfaces; and yet the workmanship has a freedom that a too
great fondness for superficial polish too often took away from the
diorite monuments of Egypt. The bare right arm and shoulder are
remarkable passages. The strongly-marked muscles of the back and
the freedom with which the bony framework is shown under the flesh
and skin should also be noticed. All these parts are treated with a
breadth that gives a fine look of power to the otherwise short and
thickset figure. And yet the vigour of the handling never goes beyond
what is sober and discreet (Fig. 98). The same character is to be
found in the hands, where joints, bones, and nails are studied with
minute care, and in the feet, where power of foothold and the shapes
of the toes are thoroughly well indicated.