§ IV Leather and Stuffs
The art of embroidery and tapestry, which we have seen so highly developed in primitive Chaldæa, and a most remarkable example of which was furnished us in the costume of Marduk-nadin-akhi, did not cease to flourish during the whole existence of the Ninevite empire, and was more prosperous than ever at Babylon in the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Can robes of greater richness be imagined than these worn by Assur-nasir-pal, Sargon, Sennacherib, or Assurbanipal? Are there, even at the present day, any embroideries or tapestries of more wonderful delicacy or in more exquisite taste? Assyrian stuffs are celebrated throughout the ancient world for the beauty of their varied tints, and above all for the marvellous embroideries which the chisel of the Assyrian sculptor has so delicately reproduced? All this decoration, in which we find figures in adoration before the sacred tree or the symbol of the supreme deity, genii struggling with lions, fights between animals, the mystical pinecone, flowers, and a hundred other varied designs elegantly and symmetrically arranged, reveals extraordinary manual skill. History, mythology, botany, and real or fanciful zoology are turned to profit with inimitable perfection, and we are forced to take everything literally that has been related by ancient authors about the tapestries which adorned the palace-chambers. In the banqueting-hall of Ahasuerus, king of Persia, there were, according to the Book of Esther, white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble. In the description of a picture portraying the adventures of Themistocles, Philostratus the Elder also speaks of the various subjects embroidered by the Babylonians upon their stuffs, and of the golden threads skilfully mingled with the tissue; we have seen that the Babylonian stuff called kaunakes, and characterised by rows of long fringes, was still celebrated among the Persians and the Greeks. Pliny, the natural historian, claims for the tapestry-weavers of Babylon the honour of having been superior to all their rivals in other countries in the art of harmonising colours and representing figures. “In fact,” says M. E. Müntz, “the words, Babylonian tapestries,—Babylonica peristromata, recur constantly in the Latin poets, who are never satisfied with praising them. Roman connoisseurs bought such hangings for their weight in gold. Metellus Scipio spent 800,000 sesterces in triclinaria Babylonica. Nero paid, for the same stuffs, an even higher price: 4,000,000 sesterces.”50
Thus the East, which remains to our days the classical land of embroidery and tapestry, has only perpetuated the traditions bequeathed to her by Nineveh and Babylon when they ceased to exist.
The industries of saddle-making and working in leather, which are still so flourishing among the Turks, Persians, and Arabs, can be traced back, according to tradition, to the Assyrians who raised them to the dignity of an art. Notice the harness of the king’s chariot horses. The leather straps, embroidered with red and yellow threads, form variegated trimmings. Sometimes a leather band, crossing the chest and fastened on the withers, is decorated with a double row of tassels, and finished off by bells. Another embroidered band descends from the top of the head, and sustains under the jaw a tassel formed of three tufts, one above the other, also adorned with bells. Above the head rises a superb plume with a triple crest. The head-piece is adorned with rosettes, and above the horse’s eyes there is a band formed of overlapping scales, joined to the head-stall by a double tassel. Everything, including even the strap which holds the bit, and that passed under the nostrils, is relieved by rosettes and brilliant trimmings, and probably also by metal disks, perhaps of gold and silver.