Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/414

 Themes and their Situations. 391 string, and between them are ostrich feathers. A pair of snakes encircle the group (l ig. 18S). P'rom his shoulders issue four wings, two raised upwards above his head, the others bent towards the ground. The horn twisted round the ear, the strange head- dress, and, above all, the two sets of wings, place the figure outside the world and reality. Yet only a few years ago, the brief, pithy inscription of Cyrus could be read above it ; ' hence it is that the figure has been universally acknowledged as that of Cyrus, all the more that the situation it occupied about the doorway is generally that assigned to the image of the king at Persepolis. In the capital, however, he is invariably portrayed as a human being, with the attributes and costume which were his in life, whereas here every detail suggests a god or genii. How can we recon- cile the testimony of the inscription with the outward appear- ance of the sculpture ? The two things will be found in perfect agreement if we assume that the sculptor wished to represent the conqueror not as a simple mortal, but a being above humanity, a hero or semi-god. In order to give expression to hts idea, he sought such attributes and symbols as should be easily read by all.' If his lines had been cast among nations where art could look back upon centuries of existence, all he need have done would have been to draw from the general store shapes consecrated by tradi- tion. Persia, however, had not yet a plastic language of her own ; hence he was obliged to provide himself elsewhere — apply to more advanced nations, Assyria and Egypt, in full possession of a system of signs which as yet he had not The trace of this double influ- ence is plainly visible in the sculpture under notice. The shape and ornament of the dress, the quadruple plume-covering, are thoroughly Assyrian. Winged figures in Hgypt have never more than half that number. Yet the most significant feature, Ammon*s horns, that upon which the artist depended for the impression he desired to produce, was derived from Eg^pt Thence too, mayhap, was borrowed the arrangement of the hair, seemingly copied upon one of those wigs in vogue on the banks of the Nile, where the > I/is/, of Art ^ torn. v. pp. 668-670. ' With regard to the figure under dtsciissi<»i, M. Dieulafov (VArt atUiqtu^ etc., torn. i. p. 35) draws attention to a passage of Herodotus (I 109), from which it would ap[)cnr that in the locility where he was treated to the dream of Cyrus, which he retails, wings issuing from the shoulders were symlioUc of divine or royal power. If the emblem was familiar to all, it was due to the winged bulls and genii in the semblance men of Cbaldaea and Asqrria. Digitized by Gt)