The Express.
London, England, 1850-10-12 00:00:00

MUSEUM.

The last portico of these sculptures has arrived at
the British Museum, and been conveyed to their tem-
porary place of shelter, one of the entrance doorways
at one foot of the principal stainers., under the
superintudence of Mr. Hawkins.
The great winged bull and lion are decidedly as
striking for their monumental grandeur, as for the
advissed notions of plastic art which they evince, and
folly merit the homage of the remaining portion of
the marbles which have been so long, and so unjusti-
fiably, separated from the object of their worship.
Without the lion and the bull the other sculptures
are meaningless, it was therefore high time that they
should appear.
The first impression they give is as singular as it
is striking, and the feeling which creeps over the
beholder is not so much that the bull and the lion are
mighty pieces of sculpture, and the sole fugitive
records of a dead nation, but that they form part and
parcel of a vast palatial edifice. They bear a stronger
architectural imprese than say sculptures that have
been as yet handed down to as; and there seems to
be something grand and solemn in having the divinity
=on the walls, and spreading ita wings beneath
rig or cornice.
The bull and the lion are chiselled out of two mon-
ster blocks of alabaster, and are all in one piece, Mr.
Layard not having badpiece,
to Mr. Bata's expe-
dient of slicing them, to be afterwards readjusted.
Ths only flaw is in thei visage of the lion ; the bull
has suffered the more serious damage of the lees of its
fore-hoofs. Though this is to be regretted, the re-
mining portions are in perfect preeervation, and
the workmanship seems wrought but yesterday. Tho
style of these sculptures is majestic, yet easy; it seems
almost as if in having recourse to a comparatively
soft material, they bad relaxed the rigidity of Egyptian
sculptors and Pharaonic granite. In size, se well as
style, they seem to hold the mid-line between the
Egyptians and the Greeks, and to be our long st
link between them. Thus, although, the monster-
tiara, the deeply chiselled eye-brows and lids smack
of Egyptian art, it is almost impossible not to see the
gem of the Olympian Jupiter in the lower parts
of these colossal erountenances. The elaborately
curled moustaches, the nicety of the square
beard, and the immerse flow of hair, are
quite Phidian. The triple row of horns issuing fr,in
both aides of the unadorned diadem, and the massive
earrings, are, however, purely Assyrian. Each of
these two heads protrudes about a foot above the level
of their reap, otive slabs, which are from twelve to
fourteen feet square ; and if, when placed oppodte to
each other, the symmetry in which the Assyrian sculp-
tors seem to have laid peculiar stress, be to a great ex-
tut lost, there is ample reward to be fund in their
nobie contrast. If the heads are chiefly character ist is of
that intldurenity which is usual even inGreek divinities,
the limbs of the lion and the ball betoken, on the con-
trary, active power, whether they are looked at in
front or in profile. And in thus turning round is
first noticed botn the peculiarity and the reason of
these gigantic figures having five leg"; thus whilst in
front only two limbs are visible in juxtaposition, in
the side view there are four perfectly apart, thus ex-
pressing the double effect of action and repose. This
allowable, because avowed deception of the visual
organs, may hereafter be found to solve much that re-
mains as yet mystical in these sculptures.
The breadth of chest in both the bull and the lion is
mach the same, the difference being merely one of de-
tail a the hair of the bull is delicately chiselled into
small ringlets, which terminate in a dewlap, whereas
the other has merely faint striations. Bat 0 o enumera-
tion of each detail gives but a feeble notion of the
grandeur, from which, however minute, the ornamm-
tation never dense's. The muscles are designed with
rare power, and if the tendons seem at Brat sight ex-
aggerated, a little reflection will show that they were
not too strongly marked for their low relief.
In looking at these sculptures, it may not be use-
less to lift the slight veil of dirt left by three thousand
years on this dehcats Mosul stone. And though this
seems to have escaped notice, it seems not unlikely
that the unintelligible mass of arrow-headed ethane-
' ters, which are on the ground of the slab, in the in'er-
@aces of the sculpture, may have served as a rough
ground to contrast and mitigate the dazzling white-
ns= of the marble. Trees cuneiform characters are
confined to the bas-relitl side, none being traceable
between the fore-kgs, as in those disinterred at
Khoresbad.

Without stopping here to indulge in philological
er mythological inquiries, or to examine with Flan-
die Esther the Ninevite taurine group had
" served as a type of that at Persepolts r or
whether it is to be found in Persian mytho-
logy ender the name of hamar, or gildsah, king
of
tbe earth. and supposed to be the fabulous founder
of the Poruideddion monarchy; without getting en-
tangled in scientific subtletissabout Indian bull Nandi
or the Egyptian one Apia, what is more to the point
and undeniable is the immense influenos these 'Gulp-
tuns ought to exercise on modern art, showing, as
they do, mach honesty of purpose, and such spirited
means of tarrying it amongst a people erroneously
called primitive. The two gigantic figures, high-
priests ur visits, have al o been brought to the British
Museum, and though showing more symptoms of
decay is the than others, evince in puts of
the dress, and the articulations of hand and feet, that
in seelpture, whether of diminutive figures or those
twice the sculptors were masters of the true
and sierra principles of their art.

Pang MONIT.— (Frain lest night's igeselb.)
Tie Aararrarra—Notise beim to the Awe and mew
of her Ilajany's ship knithl9lo9. who are "iliska " "us
for the slave motel Triomphe de Dr.ril, eaptered on the
19th May, NA that an meennte Meese
f bendy gnaw!
toe the said vowel wilt b.deposima in the maim" et the
High Cease of enisirsity, ...2 to eat of prliament.
Noties4lery me teEar ow et bar /Nedra
.hlp A to (her par sad Dolphin I.
emarmay , who are le there far the slave mewl
1:lm. soptared en tie 44th lane 16411, that an amount
et hillted• hong Fddled ler the said venal will be de-
posing Is do repargy el the Kish Oman of Admiealty,
agreeably Masao pubeasent ; sad mike I. likewise given
to dm sawn dad enw e 4 her Meatatee ship Amphitrite,
who ere sodded to share kr the slam mmel fheeado de
Janie. smeared CIS gad Jay, MB, that ea softest of the
slavered uumage beauties sweated for the said vessel will
ha depodted lathe fresh, el the Risk Oast of Adminhy,
' sere-ably to eat a( parliament —Patna Duraue., spat.
Visa or Flamm= TO THI Caammu. lOLANDA
—Yesterday (Wednesday), a Jemmy esnmpeedeat aye,
numbrr of the (haloes! Gaud% hem H. 5(55.11. mad of
harps, saga wre star he, sad theemmile of simpeceiml
Mneed's them tratensally. Whoa May lt was mad
sump (and somewhat amemnbantie le me) le el**. rad
soma wad blue freaks pear elf. ere el era emither aest la
ars, tad marsh eff—lrreedi peak , ,
solute, and Jamey imbibes the
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Halo Britearde."
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