History of Ancient Art Part 4

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 62.--Susa. a.s.syrian Relief from Coyundjic.]

The character of Egyptian architecture was essentially influenced by the rich colored ornamentation which covered and enlivened so much of the wall-surface with the coilanaglyphic paintings peculiar to that country.

Upon the palace buildings of Mesopotamia painting and sculpture were something more than mere decorative adjuncts to the architectural construction. They may even be said to have predominated. The brick walls of Nineveh, instead of bearing ornamental slabs, were themselves upheld by the richly sculptured revetment. The works of the sculptor and the painter take a more important place in the history of a.s.syrian art than do those of the architect. This, however, was not the case in the earliest ages of the Chaldaean empire, for monuments like the Temple of the Moon at Ur (Mugheir), and like the remains at Warka, appear to have been almost dest.i.tute of carved, if not of painted, ornamentation. The simple treatment of wall-surfaces with glazed and colored tiles, even when laid in the variegated patterns of the Chaldaean buildings, can hardly be spoken of as painting; and in that country no surely attested remains of sculpture have been discovered. Nor could the carving of stone flourish in the later Babylonian period. The remoteness from mountains and quarries of the great cities, and especially of the capital itself, which stood in the midst of an extended alluvion, was too great to allow stone material to be readily procured even for the revetment of walls. Only one fragment of a larger relief was found by Layard among the ruins of Babylon,[E] and this was so entirely similar to the a.s.syrian sculptures that it would, without further question, have been regarded as the work of Nineveh had not the Babylonian character of the cuneiform inscriptions indicated its origin. A colossal statue of black basalt, representing a lion standing upon a human being, a work known to travellers for over a century, still lies in position, half buried in the earth; it might convey an adequate idea of the sculpture of Babylon were it not so weathered and imperfect as not to be considered worth removal. The most numerous examples of the stone-carving of Southern Mesopotamia--that is to say, of Babylonia--are given by the cylindrical seals of syenite, basalt, agate, carnelian, etc. These stones generally measure about 0.03 m. in length and 0.01 m.

in diameter; they are perforated in the line of their axis, to allow of their being strung upon a cord or fixed upon a metal wire, by which, if held as a handle, the seal could be rolled over some soft substance, such as wax, thus leaving the impression of the figures engraved upon it. (_Fig_. 63.) The great variance between the style of these cylinders and that of Mesopotamian reliefs is mainly due to the totally different technical peculiarities of intaglio and relief-cutting. The seals of Babylonia and a.s.syria are usually so much alike that they are to be distinguished only by the character of the cuneiform inscriptions, or, in some instances, by the mythological subjects represented. The origin of many of the carved cylinders which lack such indications cannot be determined, the place of their discovery being of slight importance in the case of objects so easily transportable. Numbers of these seals exist in all large European museums, being picked up by the inhabitants of Hillah after torrents of rain have furrowed the earth in which they lie concealed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 63.--Babylonian Seal in the British Museum, and its Impression.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 64.--Wall Decoration of Enamelled Tiles.]

The Babylonians made up for this national lack of monumental works of sculpture, due, as has been seen, to the difficulty of obtaining suitable material, by the development of another branch of decorative art. Favored by the clayey earth of the Chaldaean alluvion, they did not content themselves with the manufacture of admirable bricks, or with exact and durable masonry of this material, but developed a glazed decoration of their outer surfaces. The walls of chambers seem generally to have been prepared with a coating of plaster and then painted.

Naturally, no traces of this process exist, but pa.s.sages in the books of the Biblical prophets indicate it to have been customary. Exterior walls, which, on account of climatic influences, could not thus be treated, were ornamented with enamelled and variously colored tiles.

Upon the steps of temple terraces this was effected by glazing the outer sides of all the bricks with a single color, but for palace walls entire compositions were so formed that each separate tile was drawn and colored in reference to the entire representation. (_Fig._ 64.) Remains show the glazing to have been quite thick; the colors, chiefly bright blue, red, dark yellow, white, and black, have been perfectly preserved.

A French traveller of the last century relates that a chamber with walls of colored tiles, representing, among other objects, the sun, moon, and a cow, was unearthed from the hill of Mudjelibeh, one of the mounds of ruins formed by the overthrow of the Babylonian palaces. An account given by Diodoros, who describes a great hunting scene upon the innermost city wall, shows how extended this enamel painting must have been. Among many figures the queen, Semiramis, took a prominent part in the action, throwing a spear at a panther from her position on horseback, while the lance of the king transfixed a lion. The general character of the composition can be understood from the a.n.a.logy of similar scenes represented upon reliefs from Nineveh.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 65.--Statue of a King, from Nimrud. (British Museum.)]

The palace decorations naturally developed in an entirely different manner in Northern Mesopotamia--a.s.syria. The spurs of neighboring mountains advanced from all sides close upon Nineveh, and good building-stones, notably the most beautiful alabaster, are found in the plain, under the shallow strata of alluvial earth. The flat colored decoration of the walls with glazed bricks was superseded by a carved revetment of lavish richness, which so generally covered the lower half of larger palace chambers with reliefs that an almost inexhaustible material is presented for elucidation of the style by the fragments discovered during the short period of twenty years.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 66.--Winged Lion from Nimrud. (British Museum.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 67.--Winged Bull from Nimrud. (British Museum.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 68.--Lion from Nimrud. (British Museum.)]

Sculpture so concentrated itself upon this decorative field of revetment reliefs that it appears rarely to have ventured the execution of independent works. Statues in the full round are extremely rare, and the few known are nearly as similar to each other as are those of Egypt. The best-preserved figure was found in the so-called temple at the foot of the terraced pyramid of Nimrud, and has been carried to the British Museum. (_Fig._ 65.) It is about 1 m. in height, hewn from a hard limestone, and represents a king in the garb of a priest. The round head is covered with long thick hair, which, falling somewhat over the forehead, is not parted, but divided into wavy horizontal rows; it ends upon the shoulders in a straight section of closely and regularly arranged spiral curls. The imposing beard is still more conventionalized; beginning in thick curls, it is arranged in alternate courses of rope-like twists and rows of small coils. The ends of the mustache curl into marked spirals. The large eyes, of rather oblique position, are situated too low, and are consequently without expression.

Their strap-like lids do not sufficiently protrude, while the thick eyebrows, excessively curved upward and meeting above the bridge of the nose, so interfere with the natural form of the forehead as to give to the face a gloomy and almost b.e.s.t.i.a.l expression. The curved Semitic nose is broad and fleshy, as are all the features, which, though not appearing puffy, have a decided tendency to fatness. The well-formed ear is placed lower than is that of Egyptian statues, and is ornamented with large rings. The thick and short neck disappears behind under the full locks of hair; the round shoulders make the back appear broader than the breast, but are more correctly modelled than those of Egyptian figures.

The long priestly garment, thickly fringed, covers one of the fleshy arms up to the wrist, and falls without folds or indication of the lower body beneath it, being girded around the stout waist by a twisted sash; it leaves only the toes visible. The right hand holds an instrument formed like an augur's crook, probably of some sacred significance; the left grasps the sceptre. Arms and hands have broad muscles, blunt, rounded outlines, and the short and thick proportions peculiar to the entire body. With the exception of the face, the sculptor made few absolute misrepresentations of nature, though evidently more skilled in relief-carving, and paying but little attention to the side view. An inscription upon the breast designates the statue as that of King Ashurakbal, the builder of the northwestern palace and of the so-called temple of Nimrud, "the conqueror of the upper valley of the Tigris to Lebanon and the great sea, who brought under his power all the lands, from the rising to the setting of the sun."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 69.--Relief from Corsabad. (Louvre.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 70.--Fragments of Reliefs from Nimrud. (British Museum.)]

The monsters mentioned above form a peculiar transitional step between the full round and relief sculpture. (_Figs._ 66 and 67.) Winged bulls, or, more rarely, lions, with human heads and animal ears, flanked the larger portals as sacred guardians of the entrance. On the sides of the pa.s.sage they were executed in relief up to the heads, which were worked almost entirely free, and project, with the royal or divine tiara, from the main block. In the front view, the breast and fore legs, as well as the head, appear in the round. This combination of round and relief carving resulted in two abnormities. In the first place, the animals have five legs, as the side was allowed four, while the front, besides the support which it had in common with the side, demanded another, that it might not appear one-legged. Further, the monsters seem, in the relief, to be striding and advancing, but in the front view to be firmly standing. These cherubims--for thus the commentators of the Bible call such "forms having a human head, the body of a lion or bull, and the wings of an eagle"--are among the most characteristic works of Mesopotamian sculpture. They were imposing symbols of guardian deities; the hair of the head and beard curled tightly, as did that of breast, abdomen, and the end of the tail; the feathers of the powerful wings were almost straight, the legs hard and muscular, the expression of the face severe and majestic. Lions of normal formation, exceptionally occurring in the place of these cherubims, show so masterly an understanding of nature and such wise conventionalization that, with the sphinx-like lions of Egypt (compare _Fig._ 31), they rank among the most successful representations of animals in any period of sculpture.

Prominent among the subjects shown by the reliefs, serving the purposes of mural decoration, is the so-called tree of life, a symbol not adequately explained, a plant form woven in ribbons and anthemions to an ornamental play of lines, before which stand sacrificing figures or winged genii with eagle-heads, holding in the one hand a basket, in the other a species of pine-cone, or in the one a lotos-flower or a scourge, and in the other a gazelle or a small lion. Upon this follow the long processions advancing in homage before the king, which so fittingly covered the walls of the courts. The monarch stands to receive his vizier, who is followed by several warriors. (_Fig._ 69.) Behind stand eunuchs--one holding a sun-shade, another a fan for flies, a third a handkerchief, a fourth drinking-vessels, a fifth jugs with bottoms formed like the jaws of a lion (used to dip out wine from the large cooling-vessels), a sixth a wine-skin; the two following have a large platter with food and the stand belonging thereto; another comes with two models of cities, perhaps to be explained as dishes; then two with a throne, the next with a table, those following with a bench; others, again, with a magnificent chariot, the tongue of which is carved as a horse's head and the cross-pieces as the heads of gazelles, while the rich back of the seat is supported by human figures; two helmeted warriors follow this, with a less elaborate war-chariot, and others lead four horses to the scene. A similar representation shows subjects bringing gifts to the king. Some lead horses; numbers of others present flowers and fruits, among which apples, pomegranates, grapes, pineapples, figs, etc., may be distinguished; those following offer cakes, locusts strung upon sticks, hares, birds, and the like. The figures upon these ceremonial reliefs, generally over life-size, are carefully executed to the smallest detail. Little can be said concerning their peculiarities of feature beyond that stated above, in the consideration of the statue of King Ashurakbal. In opposition to the wiry toughness of the Egyptian type, the voluptuous and vigorous fulness of the a.s.syrian appears distinctly in the full cheeks, the thick eyelids and brows, the widely opened eyes with curved and projecting b.a.l.l.s, the energetic aquiline nose, the pouting lips, and the imposing growth of hair and beard, so neglected in Egyptian sculptures. Eunuchs are characterized by a lack of beard; the usual fulness degenerates into mere obesity in all the features, but especially in the heavy and hanging under-jaw, and the weak, fleshy arms, the only parts of the body not hidden by the garments. The fragments ill.u.s.trated by _Fig._ 70, when compared with Egyptian heads from reliefs (_Fig._ 28), will convey an idea of the entire difference of race and artistic style in the lands of the Tigris and of the Nile.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 71.--Temple. Relief from Corsabad.]

In the works of a.s.syria, as in those of Egypt, the breast is usually presented in front view, for the reasons already set forth, but the attempt to show this part of the body in true profile is more common in the former country; an instance may be observed in the vizier of _Fig._ 69. The wrists, like the arms, are muscular and stout; the hands broad, coa.r.s.e, and awkwardly stiff. Bracelets, closing firmly by means of a spiral spring, are placed upon the wrists and above the elbows. The magnificence of these and similar ornaments, which have frequently been copied by modern jewellers, and also the dignity of the swords and other accoutrements, strictly depend upon the rank of the wearer, being graded from the king and vizier to the warrior and eunuch. The most customary garment in time of peace reached from the neck to the ankles, and was often edged with a fringe of ta.s.sels and a double or fourfold border of pearls. The underdress is smooth and white, that of the king alone being richly patterned. The overgarment seems to have consisted almost wholly of fringes, leaving the right arm free. The royal mantle was also in this respect an exception, having two sleeves and covering the shoulders, besides being ornamented with rosettes or embroidered with mythological representations. The feet in a.s.syrian reliefs are long and powerful, more supple and true to nature than the hands, though the toes lie too closely upon the ground. The monarch and his escort have rings upon the great toe of each foot; they wear a kind of sandal which covers only the heel, in wise recognition of the fact that a complete sole disturbs in some measure the natural elastic action of the ball of the foot and the toes. When the underdress is short, as is the case in hunting and warlike costumes, the leg below the knee is correctly but rather stiffly modelled; the muscles protrude like hard bands, without giving to the limb the vigorous force peculiar to Egyptian works. Yet the whole composition, as well as every detail of a.s.syrian sculpture, displays more direct study of nature than was to be found in Egypt, where the figures were created upon an abstract model,--a canon founded more upon convention than upon observation of life. Instead of remaining behind reality, as did the Egyptian, the a.s.syrian sculptor went beyond natural truth, exaggerating and coa.r.s.ening. There the figures were without flesh and blood, ghost-like, as if their slim trunks and extremities were not fitted for earthly nourishment; here the material existence was expressed in the most positive manner. A voluptuous fulness was chosen as a type of the luxurious and contemplative Mesopotamian, in the same way as the elastic leanness of the Egyptian figure characterized the sinewy Fellah, emaciated from scanty nourishment and fatiguing exertion in his dry climate.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 72.--Relief from Nimrud.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 73.--Wounded Lioness, from Coyundjic.]

More than three quarters of the historical reliefs are warlike scenes, mostly on a small scale, with figures less than half a meter high.

Cities are surrounded, set on fire, and plundered; when the fortress is situated upon a height, the besiegers build ramparts of fascines, and, sheltered by these, attack the walls with battering-rams similar to those used by the Romans. The defenders attempt to burn these offensive machines with torches and to cripple them with chains, the latter being warded off from below with hooks and poles. It is also shown how warfare was carried on in the open field, upon wooded mountains, in swamps, and on the marshy banks of rivers, with the aid of lances, slings, and bows.

The archers are sometimes protected by a kind of chain mail. It is represented with great clearness and fulness how the defeated enemies seek to save themselves by flight to a swamp, how friends and foes swim rivers supported upon inflated skins, while the king is transported in his chariot upon a ferry-boat. Some battle-fields are covered with the slain, whose severed heads are piled up to form a trophy of victory truly Oriental. At times the male prisoners of war are shown suffering death by torture; they are stripped to the skin and beaten with clubs, or are impaled and flayed alive in great numbers. The tongues and ears of others are cut off; while prisoners of higher rank are dragged by rings through the under-lip before the victorious king, who languidly deigns to blind them with a lance. At the same time, the monarch receives homage from kneeling subjects; players of stringed instruments celebrate his victory, while eunuchs record the amount of booty brought before him. The spoil is shown with great circ.u.mstantiality; female captives, holding children by the hand and infants at the breast, advance on foot or are borne upon carts, and all manner of utensils and provisions are carried upon beasts of burden and drays. The captured herds--beeves, sheep, and camels--are given with wonderful truth to nature; like the animal types occurring in the act of homage upon the obelisk of Nimrud already mentioned, they are of masterly characterization--the peculiarities of the lion, antelope, buffalo, rhinoceros, elephant, and ape being carefully observed and admirably rendered. The same understanding of animal forms is shown in the often-repeated hunting scenes: the conception of the wounded beasts is truly wonderful. (_Fig._ 73.) Besides the capture of gigantic lions and buffaloes, the snaring of small game, hares and birds, is shown. Even the various species of fish can be distinguished in the reliefs, which show net and rod fishing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 74.--Transport of Stone. Relief from Coyundjic.]

Many industrial occupations are also represented. Trees are felled, the trunks of which are floated upon the river as rafts, or are dragged behind boats, for the building of a royal palace; terraced mounds are heaped up by enslaved laborers with baskets of earth. Larger ma.s.ses of building-stone, and the cherubims already described, are brought down stream from the quarries by means of rafts, the buoyancy of which is increased by inflated skins bound beneath them. (_Fig._ 74.) The statues are carried to the terrace platforms by inclined planes, up which they are drawn by hosts of workmen, who pull upon the cordage attached to the sledge, which slides over rollers, and are driven forward by blows from the over-seers. (_Fig._ 75.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 75.--Transport of a Cherubim.]

Religious representations are much rarer than in theocratic Egypt. The kings of despotic Mesopotamia arrogated to themselves the supremacy allowed in Egypt to the G.o.ds, who in the latter country had been placed by the priests in relation with every human action, and whose ceremonial scenes were so predominant. The typical winged figure described above occurs continually in small reliefs, and even in diminutive ornaments.

In rare instances a griffin or a kind of Pegasos is employed in its place upon purely decorative works. The sacred symbol of the tree of life, or that of the great G.o.d Ashur--the winged and encircled figure already mentioned--is worshipped by standing or kneeling human beings and by inferior deities. Processions are represented bearing images upon thrones, and the sacrifice of lambs is shown, the animals being slaughtered and burned piecemeal. These purely ceremonial reliefs differ fundamentally from the historical scenes. In the former the figures are over life-size; they are carved with great attention to detail, and are never grouped, but placed at regular distances: in the latter the human beings do not receive the attention devoted to the inanimate objects occurring in the pictured story, and especially to the indications of its locality. The fortifications of besieged towns are mapped out with scrupulous exactness, and are easily understood when it is borne in mind that the effect of distance, from the lack of perspective in this primitive art, is expressed by piling things _upon_ one another which were in reality _behind_ one another. Buildings are shown by reliefs like those given in _Figs._ 35 and 57, with a more or less successful attempt to clearly ill.u.s.trate constructive details.

The landscape is conventionalized in a peculiar manner. Fields of grain upon regularly rolling hills are designated by wavy lines; the trees are usually suggestive of the carved toys accompanying the well-known Noah's ark of our children--this impression being heightened by the trunks radially diverging from the hill, that they may be the more closely grouped together. The childlike art of the a.s.syrians here expressed a common error of childhood--that more trees can grow upon the increased surface of a hill than upon a plain with an area equal to the base of the hill-cone. At times, when necessary for the characterization of a locality, palms, grape-vines, figs, and other plants are indicated by a detailed imitation of leaves and fruit. Lakes, rivers (_Fig._ 74), and swamps are carefully drawn in wavy parallel lines with spirally conventionalized ripples; they are bordered with reeds and sedges, and inhabited by aquatic animals easily recognized by the naturalist. The events are represented in a simple and straightforward manner; unimportant figures are diminutive and less carefully carved, while the chief actors in a scene not only tower above their fellow-beings, but even above trees and fortifications. As the only intention of the artist was to represent a locality and an occurrence, he did not hesitate to give a city such proportions that the defenders upon its battlements could never have pa.s.sed through its gates, and, standing upon the ground, would have overtopped the towers.

These conventionalized types do not appear in the bronzes, sheathings of thin wood-work, bowls, and other vessels, or in the rarer remains of ivory carvings. A number of objects of this kind, discovered during the excavations of Nineveh, are deposited in the British Museum. The better preserved and more easily recognizable among the ivory carvings are of Egyptian style, and even in some instances represent Egyptian religious ceremonies. This is also, in a measure, the case with the bronzes, which are composed of ten parts of copper and one of tin; though a majority of these show thicker and heavier forms, especially in the animals, and strikingly remind one of similar utensils discovered in Phnicia and Cyprus. These articles must be considered either to have been directly imported, or so slavishly copied from foreign originals that they are at present not surely distinguishable. There can be little doubt that the native place of the bronze vessels was Phnicia, and not Egypt. The former country, as proved by the repeated allusions of Homer and other early authors, was famed in the pre-historic ages of Greece for the manufacture of metal utensils, and especially for an extended employment of the bronze supplied by the copper-mines of Cyprus and the tin trade with England. When considered in connection with the well-known extent of Phnician commerce, this derivation of the metal remains found at Nineveh is rendered more than probable.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 76.--Glazed Terra-cotta, from Nimrud.

Red. Brown. Green. Black.]

The few and unimportant vestiges of a.s.syrian painting add little material to the history of art. It has already been mentioned that the palace walls were covered with a colored facing, shown by fragments found among the ruins to have been of painted stucco and glazed tiles.

It consisted of bands of ornament, rows of rosettes and anthemions, woven strap-work, conventionalized mythical animals, and other forms arranged in set regularity. This treatment was adopted especially for the exterior and for the courts, where imposing ceremonial reliefs with colossal figures covered the lower surface of the wall. Animals the size of life are given in yellow upon a blue ground, such mosaic mural decorations being formed of tiles drawn and colored with reference to their ultimate position. (_Fig._ 64.) There are also paintings corresponding to the reliefs of alabaster common upon the lower half of important walls. With figures somewhat over 0.2 m. high, they represent scenes which appear to have stood in some relation to the carved ornaments of interior chambers. The most important of the fragments preserved shows a king, who, returning from battle or the hunt, is about to place to his lips a bowl handed him by a servant. (_Fig._ 76.) The bow which he holds in his left hand rests upon the earth; a sword hangs by his side. A eunuch with bow, quiver, and sword, and a warrior in short dress, with lance and pointed helmet, follow him. The garments are outlined by a broad band of yellow color, somewhat similar in effect to the heavy leading of mediaeval stained gla.s.s-work, which increases the impression of flat stiffness peculiar to the a.s.syrian costumes of baggy cloth without folds. The head, arms, and legs are drawn in simple lines.

A dark-yellow border separates the green dress from the red background, and the brownish color of the exposed flesh. White is intermingled with yellow in the rosettes, fringes, swords, etc.; the hair, beard, sandals, and the pupils of the eyes are black. Other fragments ill.u.s.trated by Layard have a green background, yellow flesh, blue garments, horses, fishes, etc., all drawn with a heavy white, or, in rare instances, brown, outline. It would be difficult to determine whether these pigments have preserved their original color, and whether, indeed, some tints are not entirely lost. Chemical a.n.a.lysis has demonstrated that several metallic preparations were known to the a.s.syrians. The yellow is that preparation of antimony and lead which, under the name of Naples yellow, has been supposed a modern invention; the blue is a combination of copper and lead, also praised as a device of recent date in its application as a flux for glazing. The white is an enamel of oxidized tin, commonly held to have been first employed by the Arabs of Northern Africa in the eighth or ninth Christian century; the red is a suboxide of copper.

In regard to the style of these paintings, little can be added to that already stated in the consideration of a.s.syrian sculpture. The figures are somewhat more slender, and seem at times to betray a slight Egyptian influence. As in that country, the tones of color within the firm outlines are without modulation, differing only in the hues of the substances they represent. The composition is, perhaps, more picturesque, the figures frequently covering each other with varied position and action. The carved slabs which served as a revetment of the lower wall-surfaces were brought into harmony with the paintings above them by the addition of color to the reliefs. The hair, beard, and the pupils of the eyes were black; some parts of the dress, as the ribbons of the tiara, the sandals, etc., red. There is no doubt that other tints, not now recognizable, were added to the sculptures; but it must not be held that this painting was so brilliant and decided as some restorations represent. If the uniform effect of a completely painted wall-surface had been desired, the carving would largely have been given up. The best ornamental treatment of the architecturally bare surface was given by the marked division of its height. If the light openings of columns and pilasters, just under the ceiling, be a.s.sumed to have existed above the high and unpierced wall, as a distinct horizontal member crowning the enclosing ma.s.s, we can but admire this combination, in the a.s.syrian palace, of superposed courses of sculptured, painted, and architectural works.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 77.--Restoration of the Palace of Darius, Persepolis.]

PERSIA.

The fall of Nineveh, instead of being despicable--according to the common legend--from the weakness of Sardanapalus, the last a.s.syrian king, deserves rather, from the heroic ruin of the monarch with his city, to be compared to the fall of Carthage or of Jerusalem. It removed for some time the centre of Western Asiatic power farther to the east, beyond the Mesopotamian streams: first to mountainous Media, whose inhabitants, through want of culture, were better fitted to destroy than to build, and who, therefore, play almost no part in the history of art.

As the short reign of Median greatness pa.s.sed away, political power tended to the southeast, to Persia, which raised its world-renowned kingdom upon the ruins of the Median, and stretched the boundaries of the new empire far beyond any former compa.s.s of Western Asiatic sovereignty. Cyrus, the first historical monarch of Persia, not only conquered all resistance, notably that of Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian dominion, and of the Lydian king Crsus (by no means remarkable solely on account of his great riches), but carried his victorious arms even to the aegean Sea; so that Asia, in so far as it was known to Europe, was synonymous with Persia. Cambyses, successor to Cyrus, crushed the oldest power of the world, that of the Pharaohs; and the third Persian king crossed the Bosporos, that he might embody in the colossal Persian empire the eastern lands of Europe and the borders of the Pontos. Persia, by the personal greatness of some of its rulers, by the healthy force of its original inhabitants, as well as by marked good-fortune, thus attained a position in the history of the world hitherto equalled by no other country; and it was by no means wanting in a corresponding monumental expression of this advance.

The chief cities of the land--Susa, Pasargadae, and Persepolis, for which latter, a name known through Greek historians, we might subst.i.tute New Metropolis of the Persians--strove, at least in their royal palaces, to surpa.s.s the cities of the a.s.syrians and Babylonians. Diodoros speaks of Persepolis as "the world-renowned royal fortress," imposing even to the Greeks. The thousands of years that have pa.s.sed have yet left remains sufficient for an ideal reconstruction of the whole, and a conception of the artistic ability of the Persians may there be obtained. This is less the case with Susa, more destroyed, and in no wise thoroughly examined.

Its site, known by the name Shush, which still clings to the ruins, is revered by Mohammedan pilgrims as that of the tomb of Daniel, in like manner as the location of Nineveh found traditional confirmation among them in the Mohammedan chapel of Jonas. The remains of Pasargadae, near Murgab, are somewhat better preserved than are those of Susa. Beside its palace terraces, among its other tombs, altars, etc., there rises, nearly intact, one of the most wonderful monuments of the world--the tomb of the great Cyrus. Most important, however, and worthy of chief consideration, is New Pasargadae, or Persepolis, where the ma.s.sive palace ruins near Istakr, known under the name of Chehil-Minar (forty columns) or Takt-i-Jemshid (throne of Jemshid), have for centuries been the wonder of travellers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 78.--Plan of Persepolis.

_A._ Grand Stairway. _B._ Propylaea of Xerxes. _C._ Cisterns. _D_, _E_, _F_, _G_. Great Hall of Xerxes. _H._ Portal between the Palaces and Harem. _K._ Palace of Darius. _L_, _M_, _N_. Palace of Xerxes. _O._ Unrecognized Ruins. _P._ Harem. _Q._ Portal to the Court of the Harem.]

The Persians, of later development than the Mesopotamians, naturally based their art upon the older culture of the people conquered by them.

The palaces were similarly placed upon extensive terraces, which, like those in Nimrud, seem to have been afterwards enlarged to make room for several royal dwellings. The palace terrace of Persepolis (_Fig._ 78) is, as an exception, not isolated, but so placed as to employ a rocky plateau, which, levelled partly by excavation, partly by filling, acquired architectural character by the vertical revetment of its borders: it ab.u.t.ted with one of its oblong sides upon a cliff, this forming a background of richly carved tomb-facades. The casing of the platform beneath the Palace of Kisr-Sargon (Corsabad) consisted of a masonry formed of quite regularly hewn stones. At Persepolis, on the other hand, is employed, in a similar position, a kind of Cyclopean masonry with predominant horizontal lines--a proof that this wall does not necessarily indicate a greater age than does a facing of hewn stone.

In spite of the close relationship of the architecture of Persia to that of a.s.syria, the ruins still show in many points such a fundamental difference that Mr. Fergusson's nearly absolute identification of the art of the two nations cannot be accepted, and a higher grade of independent position, at least in architecture, must be granted to the Persians. The a.s.syrian ruins showed walls and no columns; in Persia, on the contrary, we find columns and no walls. In view of this, it is a daring hypothesis to a.s.sume that chance has preserved here only the one, there only the other, constructional member--that the Persian ruins exhibit the skeleton, as it were, the a.s.syrian the flesh, of one and the same architectural body, the totality of which is only to be understood and explained by the mutual complement, the combination of the two. For such is Mr. Fergusson's view. The inadmissibility of transferring Persian columns to a.s.syrian palaces has already been made evident.

The peculiar formation of plan recognized in the ruins of Nineveh, the narrow and corridor-like chambers, required no interior supports. The clumsy disproportion of the long and cramped a.s.syrian rooms seems rather to have been decided by the lack of such constructive a.s.sistance; with it, on the other hand, the Persian palace was enabled to develop freely.

The subordinate shafts in the windows of the palaces at Nineveh did not partake of the true nature of a column, they did not serve to enlarge an enclosed s.p.a.ce, but were merely decorative subst.i.tutes for the piers which elsewhere separated the openings. It is not possible to transfer the characteristic Persian details either to these or to the columns in antis of the a.s.syrian temple cellas. The sculptured reliefs mentioned above, from which alone the columns of a.s.syria are known, present an entirely different cla.s.s of forms. The Persians recognized the full importance of columnar construction in opening and enlarging enclosed s.p.a.ces as no other nation has done except the Egyptians. It is in this that the artistic advance of the former beyond their Chaldaean and Babylonian predecessors consists.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 79.--Fragment of a Base from Pasargadae.]