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Assyrian Art 1520 BC - 612 BC |
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| The Assyrians derived their art, as they did so many
other cultural elements, from the Babylonians. The Assyrians are
the original people of what is known today as Iraq and what
archaeologists refer to as Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia was believed to be
the Biblical Garden of Eden. An Assyrian artistic style different from
that of Babylonian art began to appear c.1500 B.C. The characteristic
Assyrian art form was monumental stone carvings and carved stone
reliefs. Assyrian Art served many functions, such as communicating
religious legends, parables and history to the commoners. According to
history scholar John C. Van Dyke "As in Egypt, there were two motives
for art—illustration and decoration. Religion, as we have seen, hardly
obtained at all. The king attracted the greatest attention. The
countless bas-reliefs, cut on soft stone slabs, were pages from the
history of the monarch in peace and war, in council, in the chase, or in
processional rites. Beside him and around him his officers came in for a
share of the background glory. Occasionally the common people had
representations of their lives and their pursuits, but the main subject
of all the valley art was the king and his doings. Sculpture and
painting were largely illustrations accompanying a history written in
the ever-present cuneiform characters." |
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