Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/417

 Bk. IV. Ch. VI. TAK KESRA. 385 '" »#iss^w^~i§S^s^iS^ 259. Part of External Wall, Firouzabad. No scale. Internally the arrangement of the halls is simple and appropriate, and, though somewhat too formal, is dignified and capable of consider- able architectural display. On the whole, however, its formal- i^^^^^^^^SEl^S3I ity is perhaps less pleasing than the more picturesque arrangements of the palace at Serbistan last described. Another century probably elapsed before Khosru (Nushir- van) commenced the most dar- ing, though certainly not the most beautiful, building ever attempted by any of his race ; for to him we must ascribe the Avell-known Tak Kesra (Woodcuts Nos. 260, 261), the only important i-uiii that now marks the site of the Ctesiphon of the Greeks — the great Modain of the Arabian conquerors. As it is, it is only a fragment of a palace, a facade similar in arrangement to that at Firouzabad, but on a much larger scale, its width being 370 ft., its height 105. In- stead of the plain circular arch of the earlier example, the architect has here at- tempted the section of one of his domes — hoping thus to avoid some, at least, of the lateral thrust — to ob- tain, in short, by an ellipse Avhat the Gothic architects managed by the pointed arch. As a mere scientific point of construction it is not clear that the Sassanian did not take the best mode of attaining his end ; but to our eyes, at least, it appears fortunate that the Gothic architects had other models before them, or they might have copied what perhaps even their ability would never have rendered a beauty. Another detail in which this building contrasts most painfully with the last described is that, instead of the tall, simple, and elegantly- shaped pilasters which adorned its exterior, we here find a number of stories of blind arches superimposed the one on the other without any apparent motive, and certainly without any compensating accession of elegance. The foiling of seventeen small arches above the great arch is interesting, as containing the germ of much that was found afterwards ■2.5 r ^"P — ^ 200. riaii of Tak Kesra at Ctesiphon. (From Flandin and Coste.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. vol.. I.