Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/460

 Stvle and Execution. 435 which should serve to characterize them, but their features are appreciably the same as those of their conquerors. We notice, however, figures with straight hair and top-knot, and sometimes a curled moustache; others appear smooth-faced or almost so, in strong contrast with the abundance of curly hair and beard of the Persians.* On those rare occasions when the artist found himself in face of a very distinct type, entirely opposed to the Aryan, he strove faithfully to imitate his model. Thus among the figures whose heads have least suffered in the Hall of a Hundred Columns, are two specimens which, on that account, have been noticed by all travellers. One is manifestly that of a negro, portrayed vi:h all the peculiarities of the race: woolly hair, fat short nose, and t'li^k lips ; his dress, too, differs from that of the others (Fig. 209) ; ' whilst, in the picture that forms a pendant to this, we find the Hat face and scanty beard of a Tartar (Fig. 210). The sculptor may thus have intended to oppose the nomad tribes of the Oxus to the blacks of Ethiopia, on the Upper Nile, so as to bring home to the mind of the spectator the immense extent of an empire which comprised within its boun- daries populations so widely different in manners and aspect. Simultaneously with the king, the soldiers, and the tribute- bearers, animals too have become mere abstractions, and only interest the sculptor so far that they play a part in the festival given in honour of the monarch. To the lion is allotted the largest place in the bas-reliefs at Persepolis ; but the native sculptor does not appear to have felt any interest in observing the animal either in the soft abandonment of sleep, the elegance of his walk, the spring of his bounds, the mad fury of the conflict, or have cared to be present at the agonizing death. The rows of lions repre- sented on the friezes of the tombs are accurately drawn ; but they are done from copies, not from the living animal (Fig. 70). In the combat between the king and the lion, the griffin and unicorn, monsters which are but modifications of the king of beasts, the limbs are not only drawn with care, but with vigour and spirit (Figs. 7], 72, 206). The fault of these representations resides ' Flandim and Costs, Peneoniumu^ Plates CIX., CXIX., CLV. ' Flandin, in his drawing, which we reproduce, did not exaggerate the physio- gnomic peculiarities of the woolly-haired fellow. They are also distinctly traced by Ker Porter (voL i. Plate L.). The elder Niebuhr likewise (p. 121) noticed the African type. Digitized by Google