300 History of Art in Antiquity. combat of the lion and a buU» or rather the victory of the Hon over the bull. The height of the latter is about two metres, whilst the figures in the divisions of the principal field are very much below life-size, being no more than 2 (English) feet 10 inches. The parapet of the wall to which this rich decoration was applied has entirely disappeared ; a number of fr^ments, however, lie on the ground exactly where they fell ; hence a certain recon- struction is not only possible, but by piecing them together exact measurements may be and have been taken, and it is found that the crowning member was 3 m. 50 c. in height (Plate IV.). One approaching the platform by the stairs leading from the plain sees rising immediately before him an imposing group of thirteen columns,, loftier than those of the Prop)l£a (Fig. 149). There is but one voice among those to whom it has been given to visit these scenes, as to the effect produced on them by these tall, massive shafts, standing as beacons on that deserted plateau, to point the site where once stood Persepolis to the traveller at a distance. When the astonishment of the latter has somewhat subsided, and from the stupendous height of these great stone trunks, he lowers his eye to the ground, he perceives a number of bases or stones which mark the site of others ; he then tries to understand the arrangenuMit of the build inq-, and ere long he grasps the fact that
the middle of tlie platform rose a
cluster of thirty-six columns, arranged in sets of four and one to follow, whilst in front and at the sides were other three series of twelve each. All these colonnades correspond with each other, yet each is distinct, with a physiognomy of its own, and features that serve to distinguish them from one another. In height the columns are all 19 m. 40 c. ; the distance between them, measured from axis to axis, is nine metres ; but no two groups have the same capital. This consists of brackets and volutes in the front porch and the central ranges, and belongs, therefore, to the most complex type (Fig. 32), whilst the simplest device Persian art has applied to this architectural member is seen at the sides. If in this respect the lateral colonnades resemble each other, they were not copied on the same pattern ; for a unicorn surmounts the shaft on the right side (I'ig. 31), and a bull on the left-hand side (Fig. 1 50). Again, the capitals of the columns of the central hall and those of the front porch are certainly alike, but their bases are different. All the external pillars repose on campaniform Digitized by Gopgle
