The principal efforts of the sculptor were aimed at the head, the legs, and the arms. He makes the muscles stand out enormously, while they are not always in their proper anatomical position. Bold curves form the outline of the knee-cap and mark the leg-muscles and the biceps; the feet and hands are not only clearly carved out, but chiselled to an excessive depth. The Assyrians scarcely knew more than two types of the human head, which they constantly reproduce: the bearded head and the beardless head. An attempt may be made, however, to establish more exact definitions and distinctions. The bearded head may wear its hair curled in very short ringlets, or else the beard and the hair may be twisted in parallel and symmetrical tresses: this last form is reserved for figures of gods, heroes, kings, the chief functionaries of the court, and soldiers. The beardless heads must be recognised as the type set apart to represent eunuchs. These personages, some of whom played an important part at court, like the Kislar-Agha, or chief of the black eunuchs at Constantinople, are characterised by their fleshy and sensual countenances. Among the works of Chaldæan and Egyptian art there are faces which belong to old men, to young men, and to children. In Assyria it may be said that the faces never change, or rather three or four fixed types are exclusively met with: kings, officers, slaves, and even gods, have all the same physiognomy, which belongs to the age between youth and maturity. When children are met with, they have a prematurely old appearance, and their stature alone distinguishes them. The Ninevite artists rarely represented women, and when they did so proved their absolute inexperience. Their veiled women have vulgar features, from which all ideas of physical beauty are banished. Examine the scene in which King Assurbanipal and one of his wives are drinking from goblets (fig. 77). The face of the queen is almost masculine in appearance; even her hair is dressed like that of men; she wears a peculiar diadem, and is draped in sumptuous robes, embroidered and enriched with jewels. [Illustration: Fig. 76.--Eunuchs (Bas-relief from Khorsabad, Louvre).] The Assyrian sculptor had not the skill to draw a true portrait and to study individual likeness, except perhaps in certain royal heads.[37] Nor had he the skill [Illustration: Fig. 77.--Assurbanipal and his queen (Bas-relief from Kouyunjik, British Museum).]