Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/411

 Methods and Materials. 387 5 m. 55 c. and 6 m. in length. ;ind though the pair at the Hall of a Hundred Columns cannot be measured, because of their poor condition, what remains suffices to show that they were even on a grander scale.' The Khors:ibad exemplars at the Louvre are supposed to be the largest Assyria ever sculptured, yet they fall short of these figures.^ Fragments of bulls occupying the same situation, and similar to these, would seem to have been recovered at Susa. The material they were made of, however, was brick overlaid with glaze.' Excepting small figures disinterred in the ruins of Susa, all we shall have to pass in review are sculptures in low relief. As in Assyria, here also, bas-relief was the sculptor's favourite mode of expression. He chiselled it both on rough and hewn stone, he modelled it in ca, allowing it now and again to retain the fine red tone it accjuires in the kiln when it is of good quality, whilst elsewhere he covered it with enamelled glaze. Relief was doubtless also obtained from n'/>ouss<^ work, either in gold and silver, notably bronze. Again, buildings were largely decorated with gold and silver plaiting, more particularly bronze beaten out into relief, but no trace of work of this nature embellished with figures has been found. The only fragment we possess of similar rev^tements is that seen in Fig. 73, but all it offers to the eye are a few knobs that served to keep it in place, and an ornamental rosette. Some travellers think they are in a position to affirm that metal (Mtia- ment was applied to bas-reliefs. One of them found traces in the small cavities of the shoulders, the chest and the palms of the hands, of two great royal effigies which decorated the main entrance to the Palace of Darius.' In any case, a mode d orna- ment such as this would be the exception rather than the rule, introduced to heighten the effect of special and more important figures ; arms and attributes were chiselled with sufficient care and precision on stone to make adjuncts of this nature superfluous. 1 Flandin and Cosn, Pene Moemit, pp. 78, laa ■ Their height is 4 m. 20 r. • DiEULAFOY, Dcii.xitme KaJ>jH)r/, p. 21. p. 189. Digitized by Google
 * NiBVUHR, Voyage en ArobUf tom. II p. 113; Tixin, DatripthHj etc, torn. ii.