Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/147

 136 History of Art in Antiquity. to its natural tones, none the less the indented edge would stand out dear and distinct against the deep azure of a Persian sky. Decoration. Our study of the column and other minor forms of architecture will have given the reader some inkling as to what Persian decoration is likely to be. In this department, art transfers to stone shapes that originated in timber, proved by the proportion it assigns to the supports of its porches. Thanks to the almost boundless resources at its disposal, it employs the most varied materials, even such as are not found in the surroundings in -which it unfolds, but have to be fetched at great distances from its wood-yards ; this it is, however, that has enabled it to steal on all hands arrange- ments and forms that approved themselves to its taste. Some insight may be had respecting the task the historian has to face, the perplexities he must feel in trying to allot to the right source the different influences whose trace he detects in the monuments sub- mitted to his analysi'^. by taking Into consideration the comj)lex character of what may be termed the outer shell, along with the methods applied to the embellishment and construction of the edifice, the choice of the materials that constitute it, and the dis- positions they have received. Hence it comes about, that in order to impart to his edifices a richness and splendour in accord with the magnitude of the plan, the Persian architect now makes over the stone surface to the ornamentist and the sculptor, like his confreres of Egypt and Greece ; now, imitating the Chaldaeans who brought everything out of the clay, he spreads over the brick a brilliant and indestructible enamel ; elsewhere, like the Mcdes at Ecbatana, he covers the wood with plaques and laminae of metal, by which meanness of material is concealed and duration assured. We have already had occasion to point out the most important mouldings that at once form the crown and ornament in the faces of Persian edifices ; during the process of our investigation we have met with litde more than one shape, having a genuine, original flavour, namely, the one seen in the parapets of the staircases (I igs. 60, 61). The rule everywhere else is a curious medley of forms of different origin, whose visible signs are hardly such as one would expect to see congregated together. The dislocation, so to speak, may be traced everywhere. Look well, for example. Digitized by Google