Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/241

 The Subterranean Tomb. 231 attract the eye of the beholder. Unfortunately it is much damaged, more particularly the Persian text, whose lacunae can only be supplemented by the aid of the Assyrian version. This is all the more regrettable that it is the one that would offer fewer difficulties of reading.* But although the interpretation of certain passages is open to question, the general drift is per- fectly clear. We feel sure that he who enumerates the provinces of his vast empire, who imputes to Ahurd-Mazda tlie honour of his great deeds, is Darius Hystaspes, the greatest king the monarchy ever had. By itself, the inscription suffices to prove that botli the necropolis at Naksh-i-Rustem and that which is situated behind the Takht- i-Jamshid are royal sepulchres. If one alone is signed and dated, all the rest are cut on the same pattern; they reproduce, with trifling variations, the same groups, the same symbols, what might be called the royal protocol, translated into plastic language ; and one and all repeat the same type. This type was created by Darius, or rather the architect entrusted with the undertaking ; it first appears on this tomb, whose progress the king had so much at heart that, to satisfy himself of it, he came very near sharing the fate of his father and mother. This tragic event must have contributed not a little to draw attention to a monument whose striking gnmd aspect was in full accord with its use. Thanks to the height of the escarp that interposed between the pillared colonnade and the plain below, the tomb appeared as if suspended 'mid heaven and earth, whence it might well defy pollution. This the onlooker must have felt as he gazed aloft, bis mind filled with sacred awe and bewilder- ment. Closer inspection only served to deepen first impressions ; doorway and pillars» ornaments and personages sculptured on the living rock, everything appeared as indestructible as the mountain in which they were embodied. The simple severe lines of die architecture of the middle division of the facade, the amplitude and variety of the sculptured section above, were in happy contrast with the vast surface of the bare rocky mass. The wild scenery formed a superb frame for the inwrought portion, and served to bring into relief its skilful adjustment. The composition had the sidenUe distance^ hence it does not even show the position of the epigraph. It win he (bund in CoMe's Plate CLXXIV. Digitized by Google
 * The picturesque view of the tomb of Darius (Fig. 106) was taken at a con-