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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, 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.


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