Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/171

 i6o History of Art in Antiquity. obtained from metals. Not a single fragment has been found of the ears and horns applied separately to the bulls surmountinir the columns ; but the fragmentary capitals deposited in the Louvre show the mortises into which were inserted these applied pieces, as well as the hole for the clamp at the base which served to keep them in place (Fig. 42). Accessories of this nature were bronze, for timber would have been too fragile. Left to its natural colour, the metal would soon assume that beautiful green rust, or patina, that covers the Chalda^an figurines exhumed at Tello ; in the better cared for and sumptuous royal mansions it was probably gilt. The use of gold as means of enrichment, to which ancient writers so frequently allude in relation to Ecbatana and Susa, is stated by travellers to be still visible on many a point. Two hundred years aj^o. Chardin, a keen and t.xact observer, discovered in the hollow of cuneiform characters remains of ij^okl ihat had served to bring out the inscriptions from the dull ground of the stone, to the no small amazement of the French traveller that it should have withstood the action of time for so many centuries.* One of the fragments preserved in the Louvre induces a still more interesting and conclusive remark. It is a bull's head, whose eyeball offers a brown tint which is set oft by the light grey of the limestone. At first, Dieulafoy was puzzled how to account for it ; but closer and more minute examination caused him to perceive in the corner of the eye particles of a substance akin to the size which gilders use at the present day. The pigment on the protuberant part of the eye, being more exposed to the weather, was all washed away, and nothing but a blue reflection, or what might be taken for the shadow cast by the eyebrow, was left ; whereas in the hollow, where it was more sheltered, it had not entirely disappeared ; thus proving that gold-leaf had once been applied to that portion of the figure. If the capitals at PersepoHs show nothing of the kind, it is because, not being protected by a thick bed of earth, they are very much damaged, as a glance at Gate's drawings and the photographs of Stolze will abundantly prove.. It should be remarked that Flandin and Coste specify "a kind of bronze greenish glaze, which in places seems to cover the inner walls of certain portions of the enceinte."* With the like reserve they use as to whether they were not deceived by appearances, ' Flandin and Cosi'B, JWse anHamef '^Texte," pp. 134, 135. Digitized by Google
 * Chardin, FityageeM Pnw, torn. viii. p, 331, edition Langfts.