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 152 History of Art in Antiquity. by caravan routes across the southern portion of the Iran plateau, and thence straight to Ecbatana or Persepolis. The creamy whiteness of the ivory was everywhere mingled with the brilliant hues of metals, the reds, blues, yellows, and greens of stuccoes and enamels, and the more sombre tints of precious woods, cypress, cedar, and ebony. These in the interior of the building were left to their natural colour ; externally, however, timber, when not overlaid with stucco, clay, or bronze, received a coating of paint, which had the double purpose of preserving it more or less from the destructive action of the weather, and inducing contrasts that were not without charm. The flagging of the principal rooms was made of tinted stones, cut and put together so as to form patterns whose hues and designs were in imitation of those textile fabrics which the artisans of Fars and Khorasan at the present day, with but a few well-chosen colours, know so well how to weave (Plate IX.). Tapestries contributed quite as much, if not more, as the solid parts of the construction in helping the effect of the whole (Plate VI.),' whether as floor covering or drapery hung from the roof so as to shade the colonnades of the porticoes and open doorways, perhaps also to mask brick and timber walls. Thanks to their soft and light texture, they lent themselves kindly to conceal mean outsider, whilst play of light and shade could be had by shifting them ever so litde. Symmetry and amplitude of fold, elegance of fringe and tassel, lines and hues happily combined, all helped to put the finishing touch to the picturesque variety of the royal residence, giving it that air of grand lavish display and boundless wealth, which seems to have been the dominating character of Persian architecture. Internal evidence shows that the author of the Book of Esther, whoever he was, had seen, if not the palace of Ahasuerus — the Xerxes of the Greeks, in whose reign he places his narrative— at least some other Oriental palace, built on the same plan, decorated in the same taste. Now, in the gorgeous scene of which he was an eye-witness, the beautiful floors, the fine disphiy of costly stuffs and hangings, appear to liave struck his imagination most : " The king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven da}S, in the court of the garden of the king's palace ; where were white, green, and blue, hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and ^ On the use of tapestries in the royal palaces at Sardes, see Athen<eus, xii. p. 5 14, c. Digitized by Google