Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/308

296 History of Art in Antiquity. wide,' interposiog between the columns and the side walls, no other covering was possible save one of timber; whilst the indenta- tions at the top of the pillars gave us the composition of the wood frame.' This beautiful work was signed by Xerxes ; our restored perspective view shows — on those inner faces of the passage that are visible — the place of the trilingual inscriptions, where the son of Darius boasts having built this porch, " which points out every country." By this was probably meant, " whence a vast expanse could be embraced." ^ One who stood in the centre of the colonnade, in the axis of the building, had only the view inter- cepted towards the north-east by the mountains immediately beliind it ; on the three other sides it was open country as far as the eye could reach ; but the scene calculated above all to charm and astonish the beholder, towards which his gaze would steal back again and again, presented itself to the south-east of the esplanade, where clustered the principal buildings. The architect had calculated everything, and subordinated all the other parts to produce the effect to be seen here. The Propyhea are not turned towards the stairs ; hence a person approaching the platform by either flight of steps does not perceive them until he has reached the head of the stairs, when he is faced by one of the lateral porches. These gateways facilitated circulation ; they cleared the way ; but they were neither used by royal pageants when from the plain they mounted to the platform, nor by subjects that brought gifts to the sovereign, nor by foreign ambassadors on audience days. It is probable that from the upper landing the royal way went round to the left, so as to deposit princes and exalted personages under the porch, whence they could look down upon a forest of columns, the great hypostyle hall of ' The intervening space between the columns is 6 m. 50 c., and the sanae distance between them and the nearest pilasters. ' Hist. «fAri^ ton. v. p|X 479-486. ■ Spiegi I , Du altfxrsischen Keilinschri/ten, pp. 59-123. With regard to the word visadahyum, which he renders by alk Laender zeigend, " showing all lands," Spiegel asks whether the expression may not be in allusion to the bas-reliefs which adorned the porch and represented the different peoples of the empire. This might wdl be, except that narrowness of space does not lend itself to figured decorations of this nature, such as we shall meet along tlu- slur"? of the palaces, where far more extensive fields were reserved for the sculptor. Then, too, fragments of capitals by which the shafts were terminated are found here ; why should all the bands of sculpture have disappeared without leaving the slightest vestige? Digitized by Google