Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/499

 Industrial Arts. 475 of the kind which w.is in common use throughout Anterior Asia and Greece during the Mycenian period was made, then, in Persia long before she developed a taste and learnt of Egypt, Phoenicia, and Chaldiea how to manufacture glazed earthenware. From these primitive ceramic productions the genius of Greece evolved the painted vase, where the natural colour of the clay is used as ground, over which are traced figures and ornament often of intrinsic merit. Oriental genius was unable to aim at so high a standard ; its rich fancy took another turn and made it woo beauty of another kind, namely, effects andcontrastsof colour and variety of form. Inasmuch as the art of enamel had so brilliant a career in Persia, it will not ap- pear out of place if we insist upon a monu- ment it has left of its industry, not on the soil of Persia, it is true, but raised by one of her kings and imbued with precisely the same characteristics as the palaces at Persepolis and Susa. The enamels which decorated the most famous of the royal residences have a double interest for us, in that they show us the oldest Oriental art under an aspect which until lately was wholly unsuspected ; and at the same time we learn what were the models whence the ceramists of mediaeval and modern Persia inspired themselves. Thus the fairness of enamelled clay was already appreciated under the rule of the Achiumenidie, when Susian and Chaldiean artificers were required to line the walls and the entablatures of the palaces with it. The exquisite blending of vivid and soft hues harmonized admirably with the deep azure of an almost always unclouded sky, whilst enamel alone could enliven the greyish tints of the distant plain, or the denuded tops of the lofty mountains, and the grand but dull landscapes, so often destitute of the refreshing sight of verdure. They eagerly learnt, therefore, the processes of an art so admirably suited to the Fig. 249. — Vase. Red ware. Height, 9 c. Richard Collection.