Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/521

 General Characteristics of Persian Art. 497 person, alive or dead. Hence the prince lavished upon him, with truly regal liberality, all the resources of the greatest empire the sun had yet shone upon — the best stone; the best woods the mountains could furnish, the finest potte/s day, precious metals, of which vast quantities were accumulated in his treasuries, the ivory ' of India and Africa, the cedar of Lebanon or Taurus ; and he added to these admirable working materials picked artificers gotten from every part, Memphis and Tyre, Ecbatana and Babylon, Miletus and Ephesus. All he required in return was that he should produce size and beauty, erect him a building whose proportions and wealth of ornament should deepen still more the respect, mingled with religious awe and admiration, which the people felt for their sovereign. Thus an art was formed which has been happily described as " a composite art, sprung from a royal whim, but which kneaded into a powerful unity, like the empire itself, all the artistic forms which had captivated it in the provinces of Assyria, Egypt, or Asiatic Greece ; it was the caprice of an almighty dilettante gifted with a grand taste." ^ Such conditions as these are most peculiar, and help us to grasp the merits and demerits of the art under consideration. As ways and means formed no part of its calculations, it built edifices where the stupendous dimensions of the plan take nothing from the finish of the work. If this came about, it was because stone, which held so large a place here, does not admit, like crude or even baked brick, press-gangs that work under the stick. In order to achieve works such as the substructures of the platform at Persepolis, or the gigantic colonnade of Xerxes, as skilful and experienced workmen as could be procured were required. What, then, shall we say of chisellers who fashioned bases, door-frames, and niches, sculptors who modelled those superb capitals, and carpenters who put together pieces both numerous and com- plicated to form the coverings ? The execution we find here is far more finished than in the palaces of Assyria ; it is, perhaps, even superior to that of most Egyptian buildings. Had the temples of Ionia and the example of Greek workmen anything to do with this relative perfection ? It is hard to say ; but it cannot be denied that, owing to the absolute precision of the materials employed, as well as the make of the ornaments and mouldings the edifices
 * J. Darmestbtbr, Cmj^ tPml mr rkisioin de ia Perse, p. z8.