Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/454

Style and Execution. 429 in European museums, will show that the same degree of ex- cellence is observable in the treatment of sculpture on stone.' If, despite opaque and complete covering, the body has become more visible, it is because the former has lost the rigidity of the Assyrian chasuble, which hangs on, but seems to have no con- FlG. 207. — IVrscpolis. Bas-relief of hypostyle hall of Xerxes. From cast in the Louvre. nection with the figure and the limbs it clothes. Here, on the contrary, the exquisite softness of the stuff hugs the form and brings out every shade of the outline, revealing whilst concealing it. The effect would be impossible had the fabric retained the stiffness which, in the days of Sargon and Sennacherib, caused ' The British Museum has a number of sculptures that came from the sub- structures of the hypostyle hall of Xerxes. The casts deposited in the Louvre by M. Lottin de Lival belong to different palaces, and will shortly be open to the jjublic.