Image of a man in ancient Assyria. General History of Art

Topic 19 Architecture and fine arts of Persia in the 1st millennium BC. e.: architecture and art of Achaemenid Iran (559-330 BC) General characteristics of the political and economic situation in Iran in the 1st millennium BC. e., the rise to power of Cyrus from the Achaemenid dynasty in

The art of Assyria grew on the foundation laid by the culture of Ancient Babylon. Assyrian cities, located along the middle reaches of the Tigris, on important trade routes, began to rise from the 14th century BC. e. The city of Ashur became the main center of the Assyrian state. Soon Assyria became a major military power, which contributed to the formation of art that glorified the strength of the winners, military prowess. Assyrian palaces were striking in their luxury, including temples and ziggurats. The temple ensemble of Assur consisted of a large courtyard surrounded by a massive wall with gates and two ziggurats. The palace included two hundred rooms, richly decorated with reliefs, paintings, glazed tiles.

Gloomy high halls were turned into museums, chronicles of military campaigns and battles. Reliefs and murals, plot-related, told about the life and life of the palace. The brightness of the colors and the clarity of the contours made the reliefs easy to read.

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Round sculpture played a minor role in Assyrian culture. A few sculptures of kings convey the calmness and power of power. Facial features are idealized, the power of the body is exaggerated. Statues were installed in temples and were intended to pay homage. The palace was decorated with alabaster and limestone reliefs depicting mythological scenes and scenes of court life. The reliefs were arranged in friezes. Monumental painting was represented by murals and multicolored panels that adorned the gates and palace walls. Ornamental friezes made of polychrome and glazed bricks, metal decorations were used.

In 612 B.C. e. conquered by Media and Babylon, Assyria fell.

From the Babylonian period, fragments of wall paintings of the 18th century BC have been preserved. e., which reproduce religious, mythological, as well as military themes.

The image retains the rigidity of traditional settings, while introducing some new and more elegant decorative elements, such as plant elements of Aegean and Semitic origin, which enjoy greater expressive freedom.

These frescoes are distributed in panels marked with colored bands, with two central scenes placed one above the other. The upper one depicts the royal vestments in the hands of the goddess Ishtar, who presents the attributes to the monarch.

On the bottom are two goddesses with spring vessels in their hands, located absolutely symmetrically.

Stylized palm groves separate the central scene from the rest of the figures of sphinxes and winged griffins, located on both sides in vertical sections. Other scenes depict processions of priests leading bulls to be sacrificed as gifts to the deity. They are dominated by ocher tones, and the figures are more expressive and lively, which contrasts with the absolute stillness of the previous paintings. In Assyrian palaces, wall paintings covered the rooms with narrative and decorative scenes.

Almost completely lost at the present time, painting, however, was widely used in Mesopotamia from the 4th millennium BC. e., whether as an addition to the reliefs or as a simple painted composition. A now significantly damaged fragment of a wall painting that was found at Til-Barsib and is kept in the Iraqi Museum, Baghdad. This palette of colors, smooth and without shine, which range from bright black to pale blue and pale pink, gives it a special uniqueness. Written in the 8th century BC e., this scene was part of one of the friezes, which recreated the themes of Ashurbanipal's hunting.

The contours of the figures were emphasized with black lines on a one-color background. For their coloring, a limited range of even colors of pure tones was used. The figures were distributed in horizontal stripes, located one above the other, which combined zoomorphic figures with geometric motifs.

Northern Mesopotamia - Assyria - from the north and east was limited by the mountain ranges of present-day Armenia and Kurdistan (in ancient times, the countries of Urartu and Media). To the west of the Tigris, which, together with two tributaries, the Upper and Lower Zab, irrigated Assyria, lies a vast steppe. From the northwest, a neighbor of Assyria in the II millennium BC. e. was the state of Mitanni, from the south it bordered on Babylonia. The hilly, well-watered area where Assyria was located forms a naturally protected plateau. The country had many forests abounding with wild animals, and hunting, along with cattle breeding and agriculture, was one of the important occupations of the population. The fields were sown with wheat, barley, and millet.

Forest-rich Assyria was not poor in other building materials either. In particular, fine marble-like limestone was widely used for sculptural details. There were also hard limestone, basalt and other rocks related to them. Metals (iron, copper, lead) were imported from neighboring mountainous regions.

In the early historical era - in the IV millennium BC. e. - the population of Assyria consisted of the peoples of the ancient Subarean race and the Assyrian Semites, obviously aliens.

The emergence of the Assyrian power refers to the III millennium BC. e., to the era of the domination of the Sumerian culture in the south of Mesopotamia.

For a long time, Assyria remained subordinate to its neighbors: the states of Ur, Babylonia and Mitanni. Assyria acted as an independent powerful power twice. Each of these two periods of its history takes a little more than two and a half centuries (about 1400-1130 and 885-612 BC). Assyria reached its peak of power under Ashurbanipal (668 - 626), when, in addition to Babylonia, she even owned Egypt. The capital of the state in different eras was transferred from city to city. The most significant Assyrian capital cities are: Ashur (Assur, who gave the name to the whole country), Kalah, Dur-Sharrukin and Nineveh. The latter was destroyed by the Medes around 607 BC. e.

The socio-social and economic structure of Assyria was generally similar to that of the southern Mesopotamian. The basis of its economy was agriculture (partially irrigated, as in the south of Mesopotamia and in Egypt), as well as cattle breeding. Assyria was a country of large landownership, using slave labor, but at the same time it also retained rural communities.

Taking advantage of the presence of metal ores and other minerals in the country, the Assyrians created developed handicraft industries. A large artisan population lived in the cities, which consisted largely of foreign slaves. Almost entirely in the hands of foreigners was the highly developed trade of Assyria, on the territory of which the most important trade routes of Asia Minor crossed.

According to its general way of life, Assyria was a pronounced military power. From the 14th to the 7th century BC e., during the periods of the first and second rise of Assyria, her life and state structure were entirely subordinated to military tasks.

Construction machinery. Assyrian building records show that due to constant floods, Assyrian builders had to take care of building solid foundations, foundations and terraces.

All construction in Assyria was a state, "royal" affair. Bricks, used for the construction of large palaces, had the brand of the king. The chronicles of the Assyrian kings often mention their construction: "I built, I restored."

Massive Assyrian buildings, artificial platforms and foundations required a huge number of workers. According to the calculations of one of the Assyriologists, the construction of the terrace, on which the four palaces of Nineveh were located, required 12 years of continuous labor of at least 10 thousand workers. There are images reminiscent of Egyptian ones, dedicated to the transportation of a colossal half-hewn monolith in the form of a bull (Plate 105, fig. 4). Transportation was carried out on skids with rollers, with the help of levers.

As in the Southern Mesopotamia, the main building material of Assyrian architecture was raw brick or simply "broken earth". The massifs made of these materials needed to be strengthened by lining the bottom with stone or stone foundations. Facing the mud wall with stone slabs became a characteristic technique of Assyrian architecture.

The extraction of stone in quarries was carried out, obviously, in the same ways as in Egypt. Assyria is characterized by skillful and careful production of large, but relatively thin slabs of facing stone, covered with flat relief carvings.

Bricks found in the buildings of Assyria have a length of 31.5 to 63 cm and a thickness of 5-10 cm. Burnt brick was used mainly in the construction of palaces, temples and important defense structures; all other buildings were built of mud; at the same time, layers of raw brick were often laid in a wet form, due to which the entire masonry merged into one compact mass.

The Assyrians used asphalt as a binder, although less frequently than in Babylon (for example, the palace at Dur-Sharrukin); they also knew lime and gypsum. Huge adobe substructures of the terraces on which the palace complexes stood were equipped with special drainage channels of various diameters and sizes, sometimes with vaulted ceilings.

The Assyrians knew false and wedge vaults. The relief from Nineveh depicts buildings covered with spherical or beehive-shaped domes, none of which, however, has come down to us (Pl. 103, fig. 8). Underground vaulted tombs of the 13th century. BC e. (in Ashur) were covered with a duct vault (Plate 105, fig. 7). The wedge-shaped box vault of the classical form was used in overlapping the monumental entrances of Sargon's palace in Dur-Sharrukin. In the arches of this palace, wedge-shaped, properly seasoned brickwork on liquid clay was used. In the vaults of drain galleries and canals, the lancet form dominated (Plate 105, fig. 3). To cover the interior halls of palaces and temples, the Assyrians continued to use wood. The annals contain indications of the use of whole cedar trunks in the ceilings of the palace premises.

Decor tricks. The decoration of walls with relief, pictorial or decorative painting, the use of clay ornamentation and glaze were characteristic features Assyrian architecture, which continued to the southern Mesopotamian traditions.

Also extremely characteristic of Assyrian architecture are the so-called "lamassu" or "izedu" - sculptural sculptures in the form of monumental figures of winged bulls or lions with human heads (table, 105, fig. 2). Huge monolithic "lamassu", which had a base about 3 m long and 1 m wide, up to 3 m high, stood on the sides of the palace portals, and sometimes the city gates. The figure of a walking winged bull or lion from the side was a high relief with the background preserved, and from the front it was interpreted as an independent round statue depicting a bearded man in a tiara with horns. With all the ornamentality in the interpretation of individual details (for example, wool and feathers), these Assyrian sculptures testify to the ability of their sculptors to observe nature.

Another significant variety of Assyrian sculpture is the flat relief orthostats. Ortostats in Kalah, depicting the king, his courtiers and guardian spirits, decorated the walls both from the inside and from the outside. In the composition of individual scenes and groups, one can note a technique that was later developed in European heraldry, in which two similar figures were placed strictly symmetrically on the sides of the central axis.

In the interior decoration of Assyrian palaces, fresco paintings played a significant role; they have been discovered only in recent years and are still little studied (Table 103, figs. 5, 6, and 7). Lamassu figures and limestone reliefs were usually painted. A purely Assyrian invention is, apparently, glazed tiles, the technical and artistic development of which later reached its highest flowering in New Babylon and in Iran of the Achaemenid era. Starting from the X century. BC e., the Assyrians decorated the top of the walls and their battlements with such tiles (Table 105, fig. 6). To protect the walls from dampness, the basement of the building was covered with glazed brick.

The use of bronze, often gilded, in combination with wood and stone can also be counted among the characteristic prisms of Assyrian decoration. In front of one of the temples of Sargon's palace, the remains of small wooden pillars upholstered with sheets of bronze were found. Sargon's inscription has also been preserved, which says that he ordered the execution of bronze "four pairs of double lions" as bases for the "bit-khilani" pillars.

On the Balavat hill near Nineveh, a gate was found covered with relief strips of bronze, 27 cm high, up to 1.75 m long, depicting episodes of the campaign of Salmatasar III to the country of Urartu. Gilded bronze was no doubt widely used in Assyrian palace and temple architecture. When ancient sources (including Herodotus) say that the upper tier of the Babylonian ziggurat was "gold", then, obviously, we are talking about upholstery with gilded bronze sheets. The use of metal for structural purposes, braces, etc., in Assyrian architecture was, in all likelihood, insignificant.

Assyrian construction types

Cities. The old Assyrian cities, like Ashur (Pl. 102, fig. 1) and Nineveh (Pl. 103, fig. 2.), were formed, apparently, by gradual overgrowth of the original core; in most cases, their planning is caused by the conditions of the relief and the irrigation system of the area. Newly created cities that served as permanent or seasonal (residences of kings), like Kalakh and Dur-Sharrukin, were built according to a single task. They were distinguished by a clear square plan with a rectilinear arrangement of streets.

The construction of cities was carried out in Assyria in an organized and fast manner. The cities were surrounded by massive walls, the dimensions of which will give an idea of ​​the wall of Dur-Sharrukin, which was 23 meters thick and about the same height.

The city walls had gates carefully fortified with flanking towers; the gates themselves were wooden, sometimes they were upholstered with metal.

Nineveh, the largest city of Assyria (about 200,000 people), had 15 gates (Table 103, Fig. 2). Its streets reached 15 m wide and were paved. Under pain of execution, it was forbidden to violate building lines. The perimeter of the city walls of Nineveh, forming an irregular triangle, reached 12 km.

House. As in the Southern Mesopotamia, the Assyrian residential building originated from the oldest wicker hut.

The plans of residential buildings found out by excavations in Ashur had a form common for the East (Plate 102, figs. 4, 8 and 9). A massive, low, windowless brick wall enclosed the property; living quarters inside the courtyard were located on the south side. The houses, apparently, were one-story and had no windows. To protect against heat in the camps of the houses, ventilation holes were arranged facing north. The entrance was on the long side of the house. In the middle of the plot there was an open paved yard (See the description of the "northern" type residential building in the section "Architecture of the Ancient Mesopotamia").

The ceiling of the residential building was, in all likelihood, flat. Above the hearth, a hole was made for the exit of smoke. In Dur-Sharrukin, the relief mentioned above was found depicting a group of buildings with spherical beehive-shaped domes (Plate 103, fig. 8). However, this image is single, and the existence of domes has not yet been confirmed by archaeological data. Some scholars see in this group of buildings an image of royal barns-granaries.

Table 102 1. Plan of the city between the 9th and 7th centuries. BC e. - 2. General form excavations of the city (on the left - the ziggurat of the temple of Anu-Adad, in the depths - a large ziggurat, on the right - the city wall of Shalmanassar II). - 3. City walls of the time of IX - VII centuries. BC e. (reconstruction).- 4. Plan of an ancient Assyrian dwelling house. -
5. Early Temple of Anu-Adad (reconstruction by Andre). - 6. Temple of Ishtar, plan, late 3rd millennium BC. - 7. Underground vaulted tomb. - 8. Plan of a red dwelling house, VII c. BC e. (a - entrance, b - courtyard). - 2. "Red" residential building (part in the plan of Fig. 8), External
yard

temples. The plans of the most ancient Assyrian temples were closely connected with the layout of housing. A small temple of the goddess Ishtar in Ashur (pl. 102, fig. 6), the construction of which dates back to the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e., clearly repeated the composition of a residential building (Plate 102, fig. 4). It was based on an oblong room like a room with a hearth; a statue of the goddess occupied a place near the end wall; votive figures depicting believers were placed along the long walls. The entrance to the temple hall was located on the side, i.e., the basis of the composition was, as in the palace and temple complexes of Mari and Ashnunak, a turn in width. The Temple of Ishtar differed, however, from ordinary residential buildings in that it stood freely, being neither surrounded by a wall, nor built up on all sides, such as, for example, the “Red House” in Ashur (Plate 102, Figs. 8 and 9) .

At a later time, in the II and even more so in the I millennium BC. e., the Assyrian temple acquired a different composition, elongated along the longitudinal axis. In the era of developed palace and temple construction in Ashur, Dur-Sharrukin and Nineveh, the temple was divided into a high-rise ledge tower - a ziggurat and into a lower, as it were, entrance, small temple with a longitudinal-axial plan.

The ziggurat is a monument of Sumerian origin. In late Assyria, the ziggurats erected at the temples were dedicated to one of the gods; the double temple of Anu-Adad at Ashur had two ziggurats (Pl. 102, fig. 5). The best preserved ziggurat in Dur-Sharrukin, the lower square tier of which occupied an area of ​​about 1760 square meters. m (42 m x 42 m) (Table 104, fig. 1 f). The surviving 4 floors were about 24 m high. If we assume that the ziggurat, as in Babylonia, should have 7 floors according to the number of planets, then the total height of the Dur-Sharruka ziggurat should have reached 42 m. A ramp encircling the ziggurat from all four sides led to the upper tiers. The purpose of the Assyrian ziggurats, obviously, coincided with the Babylonian-Sumerian. They served for the purposes of the cult and related astrological observations, which were conducted by the priests.

palaces. In Assyria, the construction of palaces was widely developed, in the planning, construction and decoration of which Assyrian architecture reached its highest peak. The best-preserved palace in Dur-Sharrukin occupies an area of ​​about 10 hectares (Plate 104, figs. 1–3). Placed on a huge terrace, the palace dominated the city like a fortress. The palace had more than 200 rooms.

Both early (in Ashur, Kalah) and later (in Nineveh) Assyrian palaces, with great differences in quality of execution, in terms of scale of buildings and luxury of decoration, had the same planned layout and arrangement. The Assyrians owe the main forms and techniques of their palace architecture to the art of the Southern Mesopotamia. At the same time, the Assyrians included in the composition of the artistic and constructive principles of their construction a lot borrowed from the West, from Northern Syria and from the Hittites. A striking example is the adoption by Assyria of the Hittite "bit-khilani".

The characteristic features of bit-khilani are the deployment of the entire composition in the transverse direction and the entrance along the axis of the long side of the buildings, decorated with two towers standing symmetrically on the sides of an open terrace with columns.

The massive adobe architecture of the Southern Mesopotamia rarely used free-standing supports. The column and pillar are taken by Assyrian architecture from the west. In the reliefs of Dur-Sharrukin, one can find images of such bit-khilani, unlike in type to other buildings of the palace of Sargon II.

parks. Green spaces were of great significance in Assyrian architecture. To the north of Nineveh, traces of a country park were found, ”and in Nineveh itself, a kind of botanical garden was discovered. In the middle of this park stood a bit-khilani-type kiosk. The park was irrigated with artificial water.

Canals and aqueducts. The care of irrigation and water supply, as well as sewerage, drains, drainage and ventilation can be traced throughout the city and palace construction of Assyria.

An example of large waterworks is the once famous Sennacherib aqueduct in Nineveh, which combined the water of "eighteen mountain rivers". Its ruins have come down to us (Plate 103, fig. 1). The sewers and sewers in Nineveh and Dur-Sharrukin testify to the high technology of their execution. The drains in Ashur's dwelling houses were made of stone, baked bricks or terracotta. In Dur-Sharrukin there was a real underground tunnel built to collect and drain water (Plate 105, fig. 3).

Fortress construction. Assyria pursued an energetic military policy and erected many defensive structures. The structure and layout of the surviving walls of Ashur and Nineveh indicate a high technique of fortification construction (Plate 102, figs. 1-3; Table 103, fig. 2). From the north and east, Nineveh was fortified with ditches, the walls surrounded the city in two rows and were equipped with battlements, between which special shields were placed to protect against arrows and stones thrown by throwing weapons. There was also a special arsenal building. The appearance of the Assyrian fortified city can give an idea of ​​the frequently encountered reliefs depicting military scenes. For example, the well-known relief from Nineveh, Kept in Berlin, depicts a camp with tents, in the background of which a wall with alternating low towers is visible (pl. 103, fig. 3).

The Assyrians also had a high level of road construction technology, the need for which was caused by the military nature of the state and developed trade in the absence of waterways.

Monuments of Assyrian architecture

Ashur. The city of Ashur (in modern times - Kalat Shergat), excavated in 1903-13. archaeologist Andre, was founded by the Sumerians around 3000 BC. e. (Table 102, Fig. 1). Ashur played the role of a "sacred" city. In the former palace of the rulers of Ashur between the 11th and 7th centuries. BC e. were the sarcophagi of the kings of the country. There were at least 34 temples and chapels in the city. Standing on a cliff 25 meters high, surrounded by the Tigris current and canals, the city of Ashur must have been an exceptionally picturesque sight. Its silhouette was characterized by three ziggurats: one belonged to the main temple of Ashur, the other two - to the aforementioned double temple of the god Anu and his son Adad (Pl. 102, figs. 2 and 5).

Built in the 11th century. to m.e. the temple of Algu-Adad had a courtyard with a well in front of a symmetrically located facade, as if splitting into two parts; its gates were fortified. The temple has not come down to us, the restoration made by Andre (pl. 102, fig. 5) reproduces the massive nature of the building and indicates its greater compactness and height compared to similar temples in the Southern Mesopotamia (for example, the temple of Anu-Antum in Uruk).

Ashurnasirpal Palace in Kalah. The next most significant architectural monument of Assyria was the palace of Ashurnasirpal in Kalah (modern Nimrud). In this palace, built between 884 and 859. to i. e., those methods of combining architecture with sculpture, fine arts and decorative ornamentation are already noticeable, which then reached their highest point of development in Dur-Sharrukin and in Nineveh.

Richly decorated with sculptures, the Kalakh Palace gives an idea of ​​two decorative elements of architecture that are constantly encountered later. These are, firstly, the winged statues of sacred animals described above, geniuses, bulls or lions guarding the entrances, the so-called "lamassu"; and, secondly, narrative relief orthostats located at the bottom of brick or adobe walls. Characteristic for the Assyro-Mesopotamian, as well as for the Hittite composition, is the placement of the main images and inscriptions at the bottom of the walls, at eye level. Orthostaggy slabs, which later became purely decorative, had, with a surface of more than 7 square meters. m, sometimes no more than 20 cm thick. Their origin was clearly constructive; their original purpose was to strengthen and support the masses of broken earth, clay or adobe that made up the terraces or walls of large Assyrian buildings, and to help waterproof the substructures.

Sargon's palace at Dur-Sharrukin. The most famous monument of Assyrian architecture is still the palace of Sargon II in Dur-Sharrukin - modern Khorsabad; (Plate 104, Figs. 1-3; Table 105, Figs. 1-3). The city of Dur-Sharrukin was built within 4 years (711-707 BC) according to a preconceived plan by order of Sargon, who outlined it for his residence. The area of ​​the city was about 280 hectares (1780 m x 1685 m). Its street grid was rectangular. The palace towered over the city on a huge, specially folded terrace. The height of its smooth walls facing the city was 14 m. m masonry. All masonry is permeated with a system of sewage and ventilation ducts and reinforced on all sides with massive boulders weighing up to 24 tons; A ramp and stairs led to the terrace. The construction of such terraces was a characteristic technique in the Southern Mesopotamia, where it was caused by the need to protect structures from river floods. In Dur-Sharrukin, the terrace performed the tasks of a defensive nature, while at the same time giving the palace an exceptionally majestic appearance.

The palace was located in such a way that half went beyond the city wall. There is no doubt that the palace was conceived as a fortress, protecting its residents not only from an external enemy, but also from the inhabitants of the city itself. It consisted of 210 halls and 30 courtyards. The monumental entrance to the huge complex of courtyards and the hall was very decorative and strictly symmetrical: but asymmetry dominated the plan of the entire palace, the composition of the complex was closed. Three or even four troupes of rooms are clearly distinguished, different in their purpose and isolated from one another. In the center of the entire square there was a “seraglio” (The names “seraglio”, “khan”, and “harem” are of a later origin; they are used in the scientific literature to designate the corresponding main parts of the most ancient palaces, due to their similarity in this respect with later , for example, Arab and Turkish, palaces of the Middle East) - the official part of the palace (table. 104, fig. 26) with large reception halls and courtyards. The greatest luxury of decoration was concentrated in the seraglio. The main halls were lined with stone slabs with relief images. To the right of the main entrance a, which led from the city to the front yard, there were more cramped and modestly decorated service premises - “khan” v. To the left of the entrance, on the other side of the large courtyard that separated all three groups of rooms, there was a “harem” with its courtyards d. summer residence of the king. It was built according to the type of the Syro-Hittite bit-khilani, as such premises were usually built in late Assyrian palaces. All these groups of rooms had exits to the middle courtyard, and were only connected to each other by small passages, easily blocked if necessary. This planning was based on the desire to create the possibility of defense even in separate rooms in the event of attempts at a palace coup.

The issue of covering the main halls of the Assyrian palaces is still unclear. In the Kalakh palace of Ashurnasirpal, the width of the hall did not exceed 7 m, in the palace of Sargon it reached 10 m; the width of the doors was 3 m. Judging by the texts of Ashurnasirpal, in Kalah there were wooden flat ceilings made of cedar and palm trunks. In the palace of Sargon, the extreme massiveness of the walls suggests the use of vaulted ceilings. Its use has been proven for entrances (decorated with glazed tiles along the semicircular vault) and for temples. In Sargon's palace, stone is used more than in other Assyrian palaces. Only very high-standing construction equipment could make it possible to erect such arches as the semicircular arch of the main entrance of this palace, which had a span of 4.30 m with a castle height of 5.46 m from the floor (Plate 104, fig. 3). The walls of Dur-Sharrukin were made of stone up to a height of 1.10 m, and above they were made of adobe masonry. Vertically, they were dissected by alternating protrusions and depressions. The height of the orthostats reached 3 m. The lower frieze of one of the entrances of the harem was lined with slabs depicting animals, birds, and trees.

The main entrance was flanked by two towers with an arch between them (Plate 104, fig. 3). At the bottom, they had a frieze formed by the figures of colossal "lamassu" (there were at least 28 "lamassu" in the palace), between which there was a high relief depicting the national hero of the Sumerian-Assyrian epic Gilgamesh, strangling a lion.

The decoration of the palace (lining the walls with orthostats with relief images, plaster and glazed tiles, bronze decorations, along with the vertical partitioning of the walls) can be generally recognized as the most characteristic example of the decorative techniques of Assyrian architecture.

Nineveh. Palaces of Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal. A monument of Assyrian construction of the last period has been preserved in Nineveh, an ancient city, especially built up under Sennacherib, the son of Sargon. Sennacherib built a grandiose terraced palace in Nineveh, reaching a height of 30 m. The excavations of the palace, however, yielded less for architectural history than the palace at Dur-Sharrukin.

From the palace of the last of the major rulers of Assyria, Ashurbanipal, in Nineveh, reliefs of exceptional artistic interest have been preserved, which are now stored in London (pl. 103, fig. 4).

On the whole, however, the art of Ashurbanipal's epoch already testifies to a certain refinement of style and the absence of monumental strength in the buildings of that time.

Luxuriousness and overload of detail have here replaced the simplicity and strength that characterize the earlier monuments of Assyria.

Features of the style of Assyro-Babylonian architecture

Massiveness. The main means of artistic influence of Mesopotamian architecture was a monumental, volumetric mass.

The impression of the massiveness of the structures was greatly enhanced by the presence of monumental platform terraces on which Mesopotamian structures towered. Egyptian monuments, even when they contrasted with the surrounding nature, never broke away from it. Mesopotamian buildings, raised on massive clay pedestals, sharply separating the architecture from the surrounding landscape, emphasized with great force and sharpness the main features of the artistic impact of the architecture of the Mesopotamian countries: its massiveness and heaviness.

Spatial features. In Egyptian architecture, one of the methods for solving the internal space was its consistent deployment along the longitudinal axis. In Assyria and Babylonia, we are dealing either with an asymmetric, off-axis system of placement of premises, or with a pronounced transverse expansion of space.

Continuing the development of the spatial scheme of the ancient dwellings of Northern Mesopotamia, Assyrian temples often had an entrance in one of the long walls on the side (the temple of Ishtar in Ashur).

Assyrian palaces had an asymmetrical layout of the main groups and a series of courtyards surrounded by narrow rooms, the entrance to which was mostly located in a long wall.

The large entrance courtyards in Sargon's palace at Dur-Sharrukin and the entrances to them were arranged asymmetrically, well guarded by fortress-type towers. The entrances to the following rooms were shifted from the axis of the outer door. The broken line characteristic of fortification determined the layout of most palace complexes in late Assyria.

However, in Assyria, the enfilade semi-symmetrical arrangement of rooms in groups of main halls is also widely spread. Thus, the entrance from the large courtyard of the seraglio in Dur-Sharrukin, going along a broken line, leads to a square reception courtyard, from which enfilades of transversely located halls located on straight axes (their length repeating the width of the courtyard) diverge in all directions. The same system of two enfilades overlooking the courtyard is built around the main square room of the harem. However, here these enfilades lead to longitudinally arranged halls. Previously, in the Ancient Mesopotamia, such enfilades in palaces were rare. Now they are gaining dominance in the main premises.

In the future, the longitudinal axial directions even more begin to displace the picturesque arrangement of the premises of the early layouts. However, the new principles of composition have not yet been completed. The intersections of the enfilades do not coincide with the centers of the middle squares. Front doors are not located exactly on the axis of facades and courtyards. The principle of symmetry on facades is still valid for a short distance. The elements adjacent to the architecturally emphasized entrance - towers and semicircular arches of additional doors - are placed at equal distances from the compositional center. However, further parts of the facade (or interior) are made of arbitrary length. Therefore, despite the presence of many symmetrically solved fragments of buildings in Dur-Sharrukin, there is not a single completely symmetrical facade.

The layout of cities in the military despotisms of Assyria and Babylon took on the features of an organized military camp, surrounded by residential areas with a free plan. Babylon was clearly inscribed in a rectangle with the correct grid of the main streets. Even more correct was the plan of the city of Borsippa, brought, like the plan of the city of Dur-Sharrukin, almost to an exact square.

Features of great correctness are found in the plans of later ensembles. In the palace of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, the main five courtyards are located on one straight line, overlooking the street of sacred processions. In the middle three courtyards, the entrance openings are located on the same axis according to the enfilade principle. The continuation of this axis (running almost exactly along the west-east line) determines the position of the main entrance gate to the palace, however, due to the turn of the line of the street of sacred processions, the inner doors of the first courtyard did not fall on the axis of the main suite. In the layout of the palace complex, the alternation of transversely elongated and square courtyards was consistently carried out, separated by narrow small rooms, emphasizing the size of the open spaces of the courtyards. The three backyards across were built symmetrically; moreover, additional symmetrical enfilades had an increasing depth; first one, then two, and finally three rooms were added to the courtyards from the south (simultaneously with the increase in the number of rooms, their size decreased).

The difference in the layout of the temple and the palace, observed, for example, in early Ashnunik, was smoothed out in Babylon. The temple of Nin-Max near the Ishtar gate basically repeats the layout of the palace. The common longitudinal axis of the main premises does not coincide with the axis of the external entrance. The complexity of the entrance line, which was functionally justified in fortification construction, passed into the temple scheme as a general compositional device. As in a palace, the side rooms of the temple were unevenly distributed along the long sides of the volume.

Compared with the strict sequence of deployment of rooms along the longitudinal axis in the Egyptian temple, the ensembles of Mesopotamia give the impression of a random combination of courtyards, long and narrow rooms, and small closets. Meanwhile, in this apparent accident lies a peculiar understanding of the ensemble and the internal space, where the picturesque and functional construction of the plan and the transverse deployment of large premises have become familiar to the architecture of the countries of Mesopotamia and the starting point for the architectural development of Iran, as well as the entire Muslim architecture of the East.

Wall and vault. The free-standing column did not receive such great development in the architecture of the countries of Mesopotamia as in Egypt. Instead, the wall surface acquired exceptional significance as a means of artistic influence. We can safely say that the wall, as such, was the most important artistic theme in the architecture of Mesopotamia.

Further logical development of the wall surface was manifested in Mesopotamia in the appearance of vaulted coverings. The box vault, the absidal rooms with conchs, the dome - all these methods of curvilinear ceilings arose as a natural transition of the wall surface directly from the vertical direction to the horizontal.

Principles for solving the wall surface. The wall in the architecture of the countries of Mesopotamia usually did not acquire structural divisions into bearing and carrying parts. On the contrary, in the wall, in its decor, the uniformity of the surface was always emphasized, and as a result, its entire interpretation acquired a specific decorative character.

This concept originated at the dawn of its development in a reed construction, which was completely covered with mats. With the transition to adobe and brick structures, this principle was preserved for the entire time of the further development of Mesopotamian architecture as a relic. In general, there are several characteristic methods for solving the wall plane.

Continuing the tradition of Ancient Mesopotamia, Mesopotamian architects decorated the walls of buildings with vertical grooves and divided them with a significant number of tower-like ledges.

The old method of processing the wall next to the columns touching each other is also repeated. However, at the same time, the processing of the completion of the wall became much more difficult, which was covered with a jagged stepped parapet. These battlements were easily obtained by laying the top of a wall of fired bricks. Border stripes emphasized the complexity of the finish; the overhanging tops of the towers, visible in many Assyrian images, further complicated the silhouette of the structures.

Arches and vaults played a significant role in Assyro-Babylonian architecture. The main entrance of the palace in Dur-Sharrukin consists of a series of arches receding into the depths, sandwiched between powerful towers. The curve of the arch was clearly emphasized by the frame. Its wedges were left open, sometimes it was outlined by a frieze of glazed bricks.

The lower part of the walls in secondary places was completely smooth, and in the entrances and front rooms it was decorated with stone orthostats, the use of which was borrowed from Hittite architecture. Sculptural images of animals and people covered the vast spaces of the reception halls with a continuous ribbon and usually conveyed the history of victories and conquests. The entrances were often symbolically guarded by guardian spirits in the form of winged bulls with human heads. All these sculptural images obeyed the architectural forms, following the break of the walls, and with their flat relief they even more emphasized the predominance and power of the wall.

We have an idea of ​​the Assyrian columns mainly on the basis of the surviving images. Obviously, columns were rarely used. In most cases, they had a simple geometric shape. Their bases and capitals were often in the form of a smooth or ornamented onion. Some examples of capitals in the form of twisting two-tier rollers or baskets with curving leaves were the forerunners of Ionian and Corinthian capitals. From Hittite art, the shape of the base was adopted in the form of a lion or a sphinx with a roller on its back, on which the column stem rested.

Synthesis of the Arts. Color was of great importance in Assyro-Babylonian architecture. The presence of various horizontal bands covered with several primary colors, combined with vertical division into small projections and depressions, the rich use of colored ceramics, colorfully patterned tiles with a shiny surface and glazed bricks of various colors, an abundance of copper decorations and many stone and copper relief images of animals , the use of some precious cameos, gold and silver in throne rooms and sanctuaries - all this provided the architect with a rich palette for artistic expression. Black paint was used for the bottom of the walls, and green, white, yellow, dark red and blue for its upper part. Sculptural images were painted in blue, scarlet and purple tones. The background in the enamel lining was dark blue; yellow, green, black and white colors were used for images.

United in ornaments geometric figures and stylized plants. The most commonly used were crenellated crenellations, arabesques, palm leaves, lotuses, and Egyptian-like rosettes. All these motifs achieved great elegance and, in accordance with the place they occupied, received a variety of shapes and sizes. The art of laying various patterns and images from glazed colored bricks reached a high level.

These peculiar methods of interpreting the wall surface became the starting point for the development of all later architecture of the countries of the Muslim East.