Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/75

 6o History of Art in Antiquity. Persepolis. In the plain of the Polvar the supports seem to have been more attenuated. The only example of a column whose shaft is not only entire but in place occurs in the so-called Palace of Cyrus. It measures eleven diameters without the capital, which has disappeared (Fig. 1 1)/ and we may fairly assume that when complete it was not far from thirteen diameters. Some of the columns at Istakhr have very similar proportions. If, as everything seems to indicate,, the monuments at Pasar* gadae are older than the Persepolitan group, the differences we have pointed out as to mutual relations would lead to the follow- ing conclusions : — that the buildings at Istakhr are probably older than those at Persepolis, and that the tallest and most tapering columns in Persia carry with them the oldest date ; contrary to what took place in Greece, where, if we may so speak, the support became lighter and more elongated as it grew older. If the column, considered from the point of view of its com- position, proportions, and organic development, so widely differs from the Egyptian and Greek pillar, there are, nevertheless, certain resemblances arising from the fact that in both instances it served to constitute porticoes, whether on the principal face or the sides of the edifice, whilst internally it supported the ceiling. On the main face we find a row of columns between two antie, that is to say, between the saliences or quadrangular pillars strengthening the ends of the walls; a disposition seen in every style of architecture wherein supports of this nature are introduced (Fig. 13).' The quincunx arrangement,' which we find here in the state' apartments of the palaces, has been rendered familiar to us by the temples of the Nile Valley; but there is this notable difference between the Egyptian hypostyle hall and the Persian, that the latter has no central nave composed of taller and more widely spaced columns, constituting a noble avenue ;* all the naves being equally wide, and the columns precisely alike (Fig. 293, and Plates V. and VIII.). Dissimilarity in plan finds an easy ex- planation in the different uses to which the two sets of colossal ' The column is very tall Total height, above It m. ; diameter at btwe, i m. 5 c (DlEUl-AFOY, V Art atttitjue la Pt rw, Part i. p. 29. PP- 593-597. Digitized by Copgle
 * With regard to the anta in the Egyptian arrangement, see Hist, of Ari, torn. i.
 * A square of four, with one to follow. — ^Trs.
 * Hist. o/Ar/t torn. i. Fig. 314, Plate V.