Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/463

 Style and Execution. 439 of the lion in full is spoiled by heaviness and exaggeration of muscular power* As to the head of the bull, it has lost much of the noble aspect and grandeur which it presents in the capitals. The paw he raises against the side hangs loose as if dislocated, and the effect is not pleasing by any means ; the body of the animal is somewhat too thin (Fig. 21 1). A relative superiority of draughtsmanship is observable throughout the scries of the gift- bearers, which contains, besides several horses, a figure of the ass, the humped ox, the camel, and two rams. The form, tiiough true to nature, is merely outlined (Figs. 195, 196). It should also be observed that the proportion of the human to the animal figures is not very well kept ; the latter are decidedly too small. The worst fault is the total absence of any attempt at reproducing the physiognomic peculiarities of tiie various species, whereas it forms a conspicuous feature in the similar figures of Egypt and Assyria, so that the animal-drawing of the artists of those countries may challenge comparison with any artistic productions of the kind. The one exception to this general rule is furnished by the enamelled clay friezes at Susa. Oriental art has produced nothing finer than the lion figures which seemingly decorated the entab- lature of the PropyLca' (Plate XI.). The mingling of feline suppleness and power which characterize the king of beasts was never handled with more consummate skill. The head, above all, enframed in its thick mane, with the frightening gaping mouth, the long teeth, and protruding tongue, must be pronounced admirable (Tig. 212); but we may ask to whom should we ascribe the honour ? Both from the materials employed and the taste of the ornamentation, the buildings at Susa are only half Persian. Except for their arrangement, which is that of edifices sprung from stone, we could almost believe, whilst examining the bulk of frag- ments collected in those ruins, that we have to do with the relics of one or another of the Babylonian palaces. The elements of the decoration are all derived from enamel ; and we know that Chaldoia had carried on the art for centuries, when as yet the inhabitants of the Iranic plateaux were but husbandmen and woodmen, content with the simple handicrafts practised under the tent and the hut Of course, when Mesopotamia and the table-lands of the interior were united under one sceptre, the art of the enamellist rapidly Digitized by Google
 * The lions in question are i m. 75 c. in heiijht, and 3 m. 50 c. in Icngih.