Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/99

 86 History of Art in Antiquitv. panels, corresponding with the metopes of the Grecian frieze, enough of light was admitted. Having now gone over the methods practised by the Persian architect in constructing and roofing in his edifices, we must turn all our attention to the column — an element than which no other plays so important a part in the fabric. What imparts to these VlG. 28. — Hall of a Hundred Columns. Detail of rouf and liiubcr-frame. l!>onictric projecliun. Rct>(orc<l )y Ch. Cliipiex. Structures a physiognomy that distinguishes them, on the one hand, from all and any the East had raised up to that time, and Greece on the other, is the disposition and dimension, but, above all, the form of the stone supports which constitute the porticoes and hypostyle halls of the palaces of Darius and Xerxes. TriE COLU.MN. That which at once strikes the beholder as his eye rests upon the Susian column, whose head is now in the Louvre, is the originality of its capital. If wiih the help of works in which are figured the monuments of Persia we pass in review all the types of columns that have been descried on the sites of