Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/508

 484 HimRY OF Art in Antiquity. (1-igs. 32, 45), whilst additional variety was assured by the in. scriptions, which stand out white on blue ground (Fig. 74). The furniture of the royal palaces and the houses of the great lords of the empire was doubtless in accord with the splendour of the decoration which covered both wall and floor/ but there is no reason to believe that it was in any way remarkable. The luxury of the conquerors was got out of the patient industry of the van> quished peoples. The forms of their chairs, as we find them in sculptures, are very similar to the exemplars we met in Assyria and Phcentcla. To some such piece of furniture belonged the small ivory cone adorned with trefoil and pelican figures. It was in true bovine fashion.* As already remarked, the body was stolen from the Louvre; what remains of the monument shows that it was work beaten out with the hammer. The granules to express the eyes, the hair and chaplet, were made separately and soldered on to the piece. The horns, pierced by half a dozen holes, curl round so as to form a huge ring, until they meet at the top. Thegranu> lated ornament extended to the shoulder and reminded De Caylus ' That the Persians were luxurious in the furniture and fittings of their homes, and had their couches gilt or silvered, may be gathered from Herodotus, ix. 8o» Si ; Xbmophon, Cyrop., VIII., viiL 16. As to their gold and silver platc^ see Hero- dotus, ix. 80; Xenophov, Cyrpp., I. viii. i8 ; Strabo, XV. iii. 19. Notice dts antiquitis assyrienncs^ babylon 'unnes^ perses, hebraiqtus^ etc. (3rJ edition, 1854), No. 556. Fio. 254. — HeaJ of ball. Eleetronk Loavre. Actual size. picked up at Susa, along with a bronze lamp, found under the bricks of the Archers' Frieze. But who will tell us where the ivory was chiselled ? The attribution to Persia of an electrum piece, supposed to have been found near Sparta, in Greece, and which from the Caylus Col- lection has passed to the Louvre, is open to question (Fig. 254). The pose of the bull to which this head belonged was couchant, the legs folded under the body
 * Cavlus, Rfciidl dantiquith. torn. ii. part i, Plate XI. p. 42 ; Longp£rier,