Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/271

 262 History op Art in Antiquity. caress his ear with soft music, he is not likely to shut himself up between four walls, as we are obliged to do in our uncertain climate, where the weather changes from one hour to another, and bright sunshine is so seldom with us. The principal apartments of the residence, save those in which the private acts of domestic life are carried on, are widely open on the exterior, at least on one side. Here are distributed what are called huan or talar^ those great chambers at the end of the court with jets of sparkling murmuring water, which serve as dnvan-khani^ reception-rooms ; no door or wall in (iront; naught but a penthouse and flowing drapery to keep off the sun when It falls on the facade (Fig. 128). Above all, there is the kiosk — the name of which has passed into our language — a very different structure from those sprinkled about our gardens and public walks to which we apply the term, fenced as they are all round with walls. The Persian kiosk is a rectangular building, raised upon an artificial platform. It has but a single wall at one of the small sides, and beginnings of walls on the two main faces ; in this manner shade can always be had at the farihcr end. Naught is there to intercept the free access of air, naught to bar the view ; the soft breeze and treiiuilous light toy in and out of the lofty slender pillars of wood, whose capitals, richly inwrought, uphold above and in front of this kind of recess a light roof which juts far out from the ceiling (Fig. 40, 129). f^eople craving audi(?nce of the sovereign are often received here. The latter makes it his sitting-room before and after the noon siesta, so as to enjoy the freshness of the morning and evening air; here he smokes the kaliiim, as his eye languidly sweeps over the waters and the green retreats around, the minarets and cupolas, the gardens of the neighbouring town, the boundless rqaches of the plateau, and the distant mountain peaks. Travellers who have studied Iran with intelligent curiosity, whether in the present or the past, have one and all juxtaposed modern palaces (whose image they have engraved) with ancient ones.' Like the power of the sovereigns, the dimensions and style of ornament of these edifices have shrunk and faded, but their essential and characteristic dispositions have remained unaltered — ^a fact that must be kept well in view by the architect when he essays to restore the royal houses of the Achxmenids. It devolves upon him to Persii torn. ii. p. 179 ; Dikvlafov, LArl antique de la Perse^ torn, il pp. 24-36. L.'iyiu^L,LJ Ly Google
 * LoKTUS, ChaldcM and Susiana, p. 375 ; T£xier, Dtscription de i'Armenie et de la