THE TYPE, FORM, COLOR: There were only two distinct faces in Assyrian
art—one with and one without a beard. Neither of them was a portrait except as
attributes or inscriptions designated. The type was unendingly repeated. Women
appeared in only one or two isolated cases, and even these are doubtful. The
warrior, a strong, coarse-membered, heavily muscled creation, with a heavy,
expressionless, Semitic face, appeared everywhere. The figure was placed in
profile, with eye and bust twisted to show the front view,wholesale oil paintings, and the long feet
projected one beyond the other, as in the Nile pictures. This was the Assyrian
ideal of strength, dignity, and majesty, established probably in the early ages,
and repeated for centuries with few characteristic variations. The figure was
usually given in motion, walking, or riding, and had little of that grace seen
in Egyptian painting, but in its place a great deal of rude strength. In modelling,
the human form was not so knowingly rendered as the animal. The long Eastern
clothing probably prevented the close study of the figure. This failure in
anatomical exactness was balanced in part by minute details in the dress and
accessories, productive of a rich ornamental effect. abstract art oil paintings
Hard stone was not found in the Mesopotamian regions. Temples were built of
burnt brick, bas-reliefs were made upon alabaster slabs and heightened by
coloring, and painting was largely upon tiles, with mineral paints, afterward
glazed by fire. These glazed brick or tiles, with figured designs, were fixed
upon the walls, arches, and archivolts by bitumen mortar, and made up the first
mosaics of which we have record. There was a further painting upon plaster in
distemper, of which some few traces remain. It did not differ in design from the
bas-reliefs or the tile mosaics. oil painting reproductions for sale
The subjects used were the Assyrian type, shown somewhat slighter in painting
than in sculpture, animals, birds, and other objects; but they were obviously
not attempts at nature. The color was arbitrary, not natural, and there was
little perspective, light-and-shade, or relief. Heavy outline bands of color
appeared about the object, and the prevailing hues were yellow and blue. There
was perhaps less symbolism and more direct representation in Assyria than in
Egypt. There was also more feeling for perspective and space,oil painting reproductions, as shown in such
objects as water and in the mountain landscapes of the late bas-reliefs; but, in
the main, there was no advance upon Egypt. There was a difference which was not
necessarily a development. Painting, as we know the art to-day, was not
practised in Chaldæa-Assyria. It was never free from a servitude to architecture
and sculpture; it was hampered by conventionalities; and the painter was more
artisan than artist, having little freedom or individuality. art oil paintings online
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