Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/134

Secondary Forms. 123 The only monument at Pasargacku whose state of preservation permits of investigations of some interest being made, is the small structure known as Gabre-Madere-i-Soleiman (Fig. 49). "The character of its archaic Greek architecture " has been urged of late, and it has been said that "the Persians had obtained from the Ionian Greeks the secrets of the art they transplanted in the valley of the Polvar-Rod.' To us the assertion does not seem justified. The only characteristic moulding about the cornice and plinth of the Gabre is the ogee, which is straight in the former and inverted in the latter (Figs. 50-52). But the ogee is so simple a shape as to preclude the necessity of making the Greeks the sole pro- prietors and inventors of it Thus, we pointed it out in a pair of tombs at Amrith, in Phoe- nicia; namely, the Burdj-Bezzak and the Meghazil, whose substructure is flanked by four lions, considered on all hands as very ancient, and about which it would be difficult to detect sign or token of Hellenic influence.* Then, too, the French savant insists upon dentels that only appear here and there in the cornice (Fig. 53)/ as if the architect, ill pleased with his handiwork, had not cared to goon with it. But is it not a universally acknowledged fact that dentels in a stone architecture are reminders of the ends of the joists of the primi- tive timber loft, and can any one dispute the other lact that Persian buildings preserved through- out their history wooden attics Granting similarity in the condi- tion of the peoples amongst whom they were in use, the transcription which gave rise to dentels is quite as likely to have been worked Fig. 5a— Transverse section or coraioe of the Giibn. DieuUfoy, torn. i. F%. $». V'// •*.e».^ Fig. 51. — Olioc- shaped plinth of base from the naos. Ibid.^ Fig- 34. Fig. 52.— Ogee fora* ine lower nadine. F«. 35- ' DiEULAFOY, LArtea^fut^ ton. L pp. 38, 53. ' hist. o/Art^ torn. iii. p. 224, Figs. 63, 94. ' DieuLAror, loc. a/,, torn. I p. 55. Digitized by Google