On the other hand, the manipulation is decidedly superior; the relief is higher, the outline is more flowing, the finish of the features more delicate.

What is lost in grandeur of composition is, on the whole, more than made up by variety, naturalness, improved handling, and higher finish.
The highest perfection of Assyrian art is in the third period, which extends from B.C.667 to about B.C.640.

It synchronizes with the reign of Asshur-bani-pal, the son of Essarhaddon, who appears to have been contemporary with Gyges in Lydia, and with Psammetichus in Egypt.

The characteristics of the time are a less conventional type in the vegetable forms, a wonderful freedom spirit, and variety in the forms of animals, extreme minuteness and finish in the human figures, and a delicacy in the handling considerably beyond that of even the second or middle period.

The sources illustrative of this stage of the art consist of the plates in Mr.Layard's "Second Series of Monuments," from plate 45 to 49, the originals of these in the British Museum, the noble series of slabs obtained by Mr.Loftus from the northern palace of Koyunjik, and of the drawings made from them, and from other slabs, which were in a more damaged condition by Mr.Boutcher, who accompanied Mr.Loftus in the capacity of artist.
Vegetable forms are, on the whole, somewhat rare.