Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/50

 35 marched triumphantly from one end of Anterior Asia to another, but, borne on the wings of prodigious success, founded Greek states in distant India as well. The ascendency it won for itself was at once so commanding and widespread that traces of its activity will be found everywhere, even with princes the avowed enemies of the Scleucidie and the Romans, their successors in Syria. The monuments under notice are derived straight from Oriental art ; hence the appropriateness of making them precede Grecian art, whose history will follow immediately on this. Before we turn our attention to defining the characteristics that make up tlie individuality of the plastic art of Iran, and try to restore some of the types it has created, we will briefly go over the monuments composing this series, which we know from the descriptions of the ancients, along with those of which important remains still exist, noting their distribution from north to south, from the provinces of Media and Susiana on to Persia.' ' Before we proceed with this study, wc wish to briefly indicate the main works we shall borrow from or refer the reader to. In regard to books of travel that have bfooght the rains of Persia, her monmnents and tnacriptionSi to the notice of European savants down to the beginning of this eentury, the reader will do well to consult Chardin's ven- comjiletc note, vol. viii. p. 244, in the collection published by Langl^ in 181 1, cousisting of 10 vols., 410, with folio atlas. Gartens Niebuhr vmted Peisepolis io 1765, and the oo|^ he made of Penrian bscripUons were the fiist that could be used to study the texts th^ reprasent (i?«tf«ftcf»ib«0ir/|f nath Arabien und umlUgmden Leunder, 2 vols, 4to, Copenhagen, 1774-1778); a supplementary volume was published at Hamburg, 1837. His drawings were no better than those of his predecessors. To find images not only drawn to scale, but conveying a iaithful notion of the architectonic and sculptural style of the Per- sians, we must descend to Kbr Poktui, Travels in GmpOf Persia^ Armada, Ancimt Babylotiia, etc., (fiirini^' the years 1817, i8i8, 1819, and 1820, with nume- rous engravings of portraits, costumes, antiquities, 2 vols., 4to, London, 1821, 1823. Next in chronological order are two French architects, Tdxier and Coste, whose works are still the main quairies for modem students in thdr Oriental researches : T^xier, Description de PArmhiii, it la Perse et de la M'esopotamie^ 2 vols., fol., Didot, 1842-1852, 151 engravings and coloured plates; Voyage en Perse de MM. Eugene Flandin, peinire, et Pascal CostCy architected pendant les annks 1840 et 1841, foL, 6 vols., Gide et Baudry ; Perse andenne, text, i vol, 188 pages, bjr Plandin ; Peru andemt, 4 vols., frith 329 plates ; JPu^ maiermg, i mi,, 100 plates. Coste's collection of original drawings has been deposited in the Biblio- ihVque de I'lnstitut de France by their author. They testify, along with the tracings, to the great care bestowed upon them ; then, too, the explanatory notes will be found, as in our own case, of special value. Besides these are a number, notably restored penpective sketches, that have never been engraved. Matnials f<» com- parison will be found in another work by the same artist, entitled Monuments modemes de la Perse, mesurh, dessines et decrits, by P. Coste, Paris, Mosel, 1867, foL, 57 pages and 71 plates, mostly coloured. Relation du Vojage, Flandin (2 vols.. Digitized by Gopgle