Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/513

 General Characteristics of Persian Art. 489 parasol over his head or chase the flies from his brow. Then, too, the same series of figures, viziers and officers of every rank, meet our gaze ; body-guards, personal attendants, and tributaries form a scene on the wall, systematically arranged, as in the solemn pro- cessions, and so grouped as to convey to the spectator a high idea of the power of the sovereign in honour of whom the train is formed and passes on. The analogies are far too distinct to permit us to consider them as due to mere chance. Nevertheless, there is one feature, and that an important one, which serves to distinguish the Acluemenid architecture from that of the Sargonidae, namely, the dominant part the column has assumed here. Its role in the monuments of Assyria — where it seldom appears — is a sub- ordinate one. Thus, at Nimroud, Khorsabad, and Koyunjik, we only find it in the minor sections — porches or external galleries, for instance. Flat or vaulted ceilings are wholly supported by the stout walls of rectangular apartments. The latter, therefore, were doomed to nuHliocre dimensions, at least in one direction. Persia, on the contrary, challenges comparison with Egypt in the size of her open halls, the largest the world had seen before the employ- ment of iron. The question has often been asked as to which hypostyle halls, whether those at Persepolis and Susa or Thebes, were the grandest and fairest. Placed as was Persia in the vicinity and under the direct influence of a people which, so to speak, had ignored the column, ttic large use she made of it can only be explained on the assumption that she was stirred thereto by suggestions from without. Of course wood pillars were known ^ to her, in that she had seen them in the palaces and the houses »' of the Medes ; indeed, she had set about replacing them by pillars of stone as early as the time of Cyrus ; but there is an enormous distance between the plain smooth column and the small apart- ments at Pasargads, and the majestic fluted column and the pro- digious halls at Persepolis and Susa. Fortunately for us, history opportunely steps in to explain the transformation. Without it the problem might perhaps have remained unsolved ; by its light we can account for the circumstances which induced so unexpected and brilliant a development of the column from the day of Darius among the Persians. This was brought about by the conquest of Egypt by Cambjrses and the dazzling impression left by the marvels of Sats» Memphis, and Thebes. The Persians already knew how to work stone^ and set one upon another the Digitized by Google