Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/248

 » 238 History of Art in Antiquity. mountains, where even now the Shahin-Shah finds great difficulty in exacting obediencei may have wished to give himself the luxury of a sepulture, whose disposition should evoke the remembrance of the stately monuments in which the Kings of Kings were en- tombed. Yet there is a difference that should be noticed. The pillars were not engaged as at Persepolis ; there was a real porch, and the supports could be walked round. This feature, taken together with the dressed block, brings these two Median tombs very near those we have studied in Cappadocia and Paphlagonia.' Whether any induction can be drawn from the close resemblance is another question. The valley of the Halys is a long way from Media ; on the Other hand, the Medes with Cyaxares, the Persians with Cyrus, began at a very early date to overrun the Anatolian plateau in quest of affrays or conquests. The flow never ceased ; whilst later, they were despatched by their sovereign. to govern the western provinces of the empire, or convey troops across the sea to subdue Greece and invade Europe. The relief of the soil, both on the spurs of Taurus and the counterforts of Zagros, is pretty even ; who can tell but what the great lords of Persia may have derived their inspiration from what they had seen in Pontus and Cappadocia ? Put for the grand page of statuary which forms an integral part of the decoration of the sepulchral fa9ades in the royal necropolis of Persia, we might be tempted to ask whether Darius or his architect was not in some measure indebted to the art of Asia Minor; yet, throughout the interior of the peninsula, there are no really antique tombs about which sculpture is made to play so effective a part. But the scene imbued with so solemn a character reminds us of the bas reliefs where the Pharaoh offers his homage and that of his people to his father Ammon, or some other deity of the Egyptian pantheon. On the other hand, Ei^ypt, at Peni Hassan and elsewhere, offered numerous specimens of the rock-cut tomb with porch in front, which led to the vault. Finally, the marvellous decoration of the monuments of the Nile was of a nature to im- press the mind of the conquerors far oilierwise than a few unsigned and scatter(d sepulchres, cut by a rude hand in the flank of rugged cliffs, hidden away in wild gorges, amidst the tangle of forests. These are the reasons that would incline us to believe that if the ' Hist, of Art, torn. v. Figs. 136, 140, 149. For the Cappadocian tomb, see Ibid.^ toin. IV. Fig 344. Diqitized by Google