Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/458

 Style and Execution. 433 arrangement resides in a very marked tendency to the abstract and generalization. A narrative art; such as that of Assyria, was put upon its mettle when it was required to record the main incidents of the chase or of a campaign ; it compelled the artist to exhibit his subjects under very different aspects, so as to impart to them something of the movement and variety of real life. In order to do this, he took what the latter afforded him ; and he solved as best he might — sometimes indeed with startling effect — the problems it presented to him. As yet his attempts were unskilful and clumsy ; he often only half succeeded, but that was not because he did not try very much and dare very much. Sometimes, indeed, chance or his audacity served him better, or at least as well as science. The nature of Persian sculpture brought with it neither the mishaps nor the dukes which attended on Assyrian art. Inequalities of make, though very rare, occasionally occur in certain pictures — the processional scenes, for example, where a great number of figures are introduced ; but they may have been due to unskilful artisans employed on the work. As a rule, the design shows almost in every instance correctness of outline aiid surety of hand. Nowhere is this more conspicuous than in the sculptures about the doorways, where an air of sameness is very apparent, as if the handiwork of one person. The artist, con- scious that he was working for the master, would leave nothing to chance or to untried hands, and elected to repeat himself rather than attempt aught above his capacity, which might risk to disturb the harmony of a unit planned with so much serious thought and care. The question has been raised as to whether the kings could be as easily singled out in these pictures, as in Egypt, either from their stature or peculiarities of countenance ; whether, in fact, we are in face of portraits. Granted that the painter aimed at being a portraitist, it would be impossible to judge how far he succeeded, since, in almost all the representations of the king, the head is so terribly defaced, as to forbid the possibility of noticing those light shades and inflections of outline which would impart thereto an individual character. For the rest, all the figures under notice have practically the same proportion, and in the little that remains of the face the differences observable from one palace to another are very trifling. It is no more than might have been expected, and is but the logical sequence of the tendency we have pointed out 2 F Digitized by Google