384 History of Art in Antiquity. terra-cotta takes the place of stone, thereby inducing a notable change in tlu: aspect of the decoration. We are bound, then, to take into our calculation monuments which, though less important, yet belong to the same school as those at Persepolis, no matter the quarter of the vast empire founded by Cyrus they may hail from, since they are helpful in furnishing elements for a precise and complete definition. For the rest, the number of these monuments is small enough. Those of Persia proper consist of the great pages of sculpture displayed on the substructures of the Persepolitan palaces and on their door-frames, along with the tombs to the rear of the royal residence, those at Naksh-i-Rustem ; and the single bas-relief still in situ amidst the ruins of Pasargad:e. Media owns the great bas-relief of Behistun and works of minor importance, one of which, though seemingly not destitute of interest, has not been sketched by any traveller. Finally, there are the glazed tiles exhumed at Susa by Dieulafoy, now in the Louvre. Glyptic and numismatic arts add their quota ; notably the first, which faithfully reproduces, on a diminutive scale, the types created and consecrated by the royal sculptors. Many an engraved stone looks as a copy in small of a Persepolitan bas-relief. The monuments we have enumerated are all in low relief. The Persian school, as we know it, evinces no great taste for sculpture in the round. The only detached figures of which traces exist are the Persepolis bull (Fig. 152) and the colossal lion at Hamadan.' The latter is terribly disfigured ; tail and paws have disappeared, whilst the head is mutilated. From the body, which alone remains, no guess can be hazarded as to its original posture. In proof, however, that statuary was not above the capacity of the Persian sculptor, we need but turn to the capitals surmounting the pillars at Persepolis and Susa (Figs. 185, 186). The execution of the fore-part and side of the bulls is truly masterly, and in the round boss.* The hollow of the ear and nostril, the salience of the horns
- Flandin and Coste, Fcrsc ana'enne, p. 17, Plate XXV.
• The images of Persepolitan capitals we have figured (Figs. 31-33, 150) are all more or less restoiations, not one complete capital having been found at Persepolis, where architectonic fragments have been exposed to the weather for centuries. The capital Dieulafoy brought from Susa (now in the louvre), where it had lain buried at a depth of several metres until it was exhumed by him, is in a far better condition. With the exception of the horns, which were always executed as separate pieces, one of the bulls is almost intact. That to the teft 1ms lost his Digitized by Google
