Page 254 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE ART OF ANCIENT PERSIA

Figure 115. Column of the Naxiaus at Delphi

The tomb of Cyrus, of extreme simplicity, stood in a park.73 The tombs of his succes-
sors are cut into the rocks at Naqsh-i-Rustam and their sculptured fa$ades can better be
' discussed in connexion with the sculpture of the period.
Sculpture

As far as we know, there were no free-standing statues.74 Sculpture in the round was
made subservient to architecture in the capitals and in the gate figures, and also in the
reliefs. These show - like the architecture - a combination of Ionian craftsmanship and
Persian design which seems to have been achieved in the reign of Darius I and to have
served as a model for succeeding generations. For the rapid development of Greek sculp­
ture between 520 and 460 b.c. - the period during which Perscpolis was built - is with­
out any influence on Achaemenian work. It was Greek sculpture of the last quarter of the
sixth century which, once and for all, put its stamp on the Achaemenian style. Com­
pared with the Greek originals even of that early period, the Persian reliefs appear in­
hibited, frozen, thoroughly oriental, yet the Greek strain in their make-up differentiates
them from almost all Near Eastern reliefs that went before.
The contrast is a formal one. At Susa and Pcrsepolis relief was conceived as a plastic
rendering of bodies. In Egypt and Mesopotamia modelling played a subordinate part in
relief which remained linear in character. The surface of the carved figures stood out be­
fore the background as a parallel plane, not as die protruding mass of a three-dimensional
body emerging from the stone. Near Eastern relief remained essentially flat, even when
enriched with modelled details; and details were often engraved rather than modelled.
It is one of the achievements of Greek art that sculpture in the roimd and sculpture in
relief became related as branches of plastic art and shared more than die material in
which they were executed.
It is true that Neo-Babylonian usage differed from that of Assyria and that the bound­
ary stone of Mardukpaliddina II (Plate 120) has a more plastic character dian die reliefs

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