Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/475

 Glyptic Art. 451 charioteer in front, is upright in a light car, and appears in the act of shootti^ a lion, who has already received two arrows, and is raised on his hind-legs close upon the horses. A smaller lion lies on the ground, and the wheels are about to pass over him. More than one Assyrian has-relief may have furnished the model for this group ; ^ and though, as already observed, we have no in- stance of such a scene as this in the Persepolitan sculptures, their influence upon the engraver is manifest. Tfius in the pictures both of the palaces and the tombs the symbolic figure of Ahuril- Mazda, as represented in the Hall of a Hundred Columns, hovers above the king (tail-piece, chapter v.). Like the Cyrus of the solemn pomp described by Xenophon, or the prince of the bas- reliefs on the Takht, the king's stature is greater than that of his charioteer, whilst the posture of the lion is precisely similar to that of those figured about the Persepolitan door- ways (Figs. 71, 72). Here, however, the attitude was not commanded by the nature or exiguity of the field. In the group of the palaces the animal has raised himself on his hind-legs to fix both fangs and claws in the breast of his foe, against whom he leans, and b thus able to keep his posture. But nothing of the kind is seen here, so that the appearance of the brute is suggestive of a learned animal dancing before the royal car.* If the action of the horses is good, if the attitude of the Jehu is £urly natural, that of the king is stiff and decidedly bad i his arrow will never hit the beast, but shoot clean over his head. The signet of Darius, or, to speak accurately, of one of the three kings of that name who occupied the throne between the sixth and the fourth century b.c., has then no great merit as a work ^ ^hSK9Xi, Monuments of Nineveh, ist Series, Plates X., XI., XXXI., L. right without support ; but then it is a griffin, and his daws give him a wider hue to stand upon (Layari^ MnmntmU 9f Mtuwkt ist Series, Plate V.). Fic ai6.— S^«t of Darini. British MBsenn. Digitized by Google
 * The work of the Assyrian sculptor shows but one monster represented up-