Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/471

 Style and Execution. 447 straight and is perpendicular to the ground. But this is npt the case in the more important groups at Persepolis; for example, the combat of the king with monsters (Figs. 71, 72, 207), where the relief, which is considerable, has received a certain degree of modelling. The thickness of the image is not uniform, and curved surfaces connect it with the field. A last item, as tending to prove the superiority of the Persian artist, should not go unnoticed; namely, the introduction of folds in the rendering of drapery, and his effort to obtain effects by means of stuffs which Asiatic art had felt incompetent to attempt before his time. Yet, curiously enough, the art is incomplete, and the technical skill of the sculptor, so new to Oriental art, did not save him from a certain degree of clumsiness, which is surprising enough. It might be said that he was conscious of his inability to draw the figure in full, for I notice but one solitary instance in the whole extent of his work : that of the lion devouring the bull on the front of the stairs (Fig. 211). But the choice he adopted led him to the singular result that when he aimed at introducing variety in the processional scene representing Median and Persian grandees, he put subjects that look towards their neighbours, their heads and feet turned to the left, whilst the body is seen full front. This places the figure in a painful and awkward posi- tion, which could not be retained by a living man without great discomfort (Fig. 192). The Ninevite sculptor knew how to draw the eye tolerably well, as it appears when seen sideways ; ' but at Persepolis it is always full, no matter if the heads face the spectator or are in profile, so that we are forcibly reminded of the early paintings and statuary of Greece (Figs, 205. 206). In this respect Persian art is more backward than that of Assyria. There is but one way of explaining the admixture of skill and awkwardness, a timidity that recoiled in face of certain essayals boldly grappled with in other countries, a faint-heartedness of a chisel so sure and self-possessed. The qualities we have pointed out are not the result of native development, by means of which the artist, after continuous and repeated attempts, coupled with his own talent, succeded in giving life to the interpretation of his bas-reliefs. We do not feel here the originality or the corre- spondence of all the parts which never fail, when it is a long and sincere study of nature that has given birth to the art. Nature ' /fist, 0/Art, torn. ii. Plate X. Digitized by Google