Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/509

 Industrial Arts. 485 of the ringlets of the colossi at Persepolis. A certain analogy may also be found between the attitude of our bull and the posture of that of the Persepolitan capital, but not striking by any means. It is just possible that the work is Ph(i^nician or archaic (ircek. To native industry, on the other hand, should be attributed bronze articles found at Rcy, along with the vases of the Richard Collection. They number a plain bracelet of wire, twisted half a dozen times round the wrist ; several pins with triangular stems and heads with double spiral, very similar to the scrolls so often exhibited on the slabs and personal ornaments of Mycenae. If there is no doubt as to these forms being of the kind which we associate with high antiquity, it must be admitted that they are likewise met with in other countries. The bracelet and the pins under notice belonged to common people ; greater artistic skill was bestowed upon the jewellery, not only worn by the king and the great nobles, but by the soldiers of crack corps,* whose circlets for the wrist and collars were gold or silver. Such would be the bracelets, terminating in animals' heads, which the figures in the processional scene of the hypostyle hall (Fig. 194) hold in the hand as free gifts. They are of a style and fom which we know of old from the monuments of Assyria. What most struck the Greeks when first they came in contact with the Persians, was the rich and magnificent apparel of the latter, the strange appearance of their long robes pattamed with clustering flowers and leaves, mingled with animal figures real or fantastic. The contrast was great between habiliments brilliantly coloured and the severe simplicity of the Greek dress. We shall see presently that when Hellenic painters introduced princes and Oriental warriors in their compositions, they took pains to dis- tinguish them from their countrymen by difference of costume. They invariably represent the former with ample trailing robes of as many hues as they can put in, without much thought as to reality; hence their presentment of the textiles and broidered fabrics of Asia is not happy. In order to gain a correct notion of the stuffs worn by Persian kings and nobles we must not turn to Grecian vases, but rather to the bas-reliefs of Assyria, where the chisel copied with astonishing patience the complicated mase o( fantastic designs. If with these we compare the costume of the Achaemenids, as described by Greek writers, we shall find thatt
 * Herodotun, viL 83.