Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/221

 UK. II. Ch. IV. PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE. 189 Even, however, on the most cursory inspection, it is Ccasy to see how little the arts of tlie Assyrians were changed by their successors. The wino-ed lions and bulls that adorn the portals at Persepolis are practically identical with those of Nineveh. The representations of the kino- on his throne with his attendants are so similar that but for the locality it would require considerable knowledge to discrimi- nate between Sennacherib and Xerxes. The long procession of tribute bearers — the symbolical animals slain by the king ; the whole orna- mentation, in fact, is so slightly altered from what existed in Assyria, that we are startled to find how little change in these sculptures the new dynasty had introduced ; and if this is the case with them, and their position and arrangement is nearly identical, Ave may feel verj certain that the architecture was also the same. It appears, at first sight, to have been otherwise; but, on closer examination, it appears quite certain that this even is due more to the material employed than to any alteration in form. Something may be due to the fact that the buildings we now find on the platform a't Persepolis may have been dedicated to somewhat different purposes than were those of Nineveh; but even this is not quite clear. If the great square courts of the Ninevite })alaces were roofed over, as Layard suggested — and as probably was the case — they would exactly represent the square halls of Persepolis. But as all the intermediate buildings of sun-dried brick have been washed off the bare rock by the winter rains of Persia, we can only speculate on what they might have been, without daring to lay too much stress on our convictions. Persepolis. At Nineveh, as we have seen, all the pillars, the roofs, and the constructive parts of the building, which were of wood, have dis- appeared, and left nothing but the massive walls which, falling and being heaped the one on the other, have buried themselves and their ornaments till the present day. At Persepolis, on the contrary, the brick walls, being thinner and exposed on the bare surface of the naked rock, have been washed away by the storms and rains of 2000 years, leaving only the skeletons of the buildings. ■ In the rocky country of Persia, however, the architect fortunately used stone ; and we have thus at Persepolis, if the expression may be used, all the bones of the building, but witliout the flesh ; and at Nineveh, the flesh, but without the bones that gave it form and substance. The general appearance of the ruins, as they at present stand, will be seen from the woodcut (No. 80).^ The principal mass in the fore- 1 The woodcuts in this chapter, except j and Coste's " Voyage en Perse," except the restorations, are taken from Flandin | where the contrary is mentioned.