Page 257 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART TWO: THE PERIPHERAL
REGIONS
scratched on a relief from Pcrscpolis, on a foot of a figure in fart- nr,n,r, u
covered with a red paint which was expected to obliterate the sketches. These show
astonishingly vmd heads of bearded ,men matched so closely by Greek vase-paintings
dated between 510 and 500 u.c. that their authorship cannot possibly be in doubt.** They
arc spontaneous and quite unofficial expressions of those Ionians whom Darius mentions
in ins buildmg inscription at Susa. Their contribution to the style of the Achacmcnian
rehefs consists m the heightened plasticity of the figures of which the emphasis in the
tolds is but one aspect. But it is curious to observe how narrow were the limits set to the
sculptors; in the treatment of the animals they were, apparently, left a free hand, but in
the rendering of men they were not allowed to develop the contrast between drapery
and body to its full extent, as was done in Greece, or to use it throughout their work.
For in Achaemenian art it became an iconographic device which set the Persians apart
from other people. In plate 182, for instance, the ‘Immortals’ are grouped in such a
manner that Persians and Medes alternate. The Medes are not only distinguished by cap,
coat, and trousers, but also by die fact that their garments appear smooth, widiout folds.
In the rendering of the tribute-bearers (Plate 183) some show of folds is made in certain
groups, but the sophisticated convention we have described is used only in the case of the
Persian ushers leading various bodies of men. The other ushers are Medes; they wear the
long staffs of their office, but their garments are smooth.
So the Greek sculptors were given limited scope; they were not allowed to follow the
trend, which was so strong in their homeland, to intensify the three-dimensional char­
acter of their work; they were not even allowed to use an accepted device, which served
this purpose, indiscriminately; for they worked to a Persian plan.
Before determining the main features of that plan we must survey the extant body of
reliefs. In describing the buildings we have mentioned reliefs on the door-jambs, occur­
ring in pairs. There may be a king or hero struggling with a monster or lion, an abstract
scheme in which the animal places one hind foot against the victor s shin, while the
latter, holding the lion’s forelock or the dragon’s horn, plunges a sword into its breast.83
Another group shows the king leaving the Audience Hall, followed by a servant with a
ceremonial sunshade and fly-whisk.84 A third shows the king enthroned under a balda­
chin, with either the crown prince or a servant behind him.85 This group, like that o
plate i8oa, is placed on a huge stool, with elaborately turned legs connected by horizon­
tal rods; between these rods there are rows of figures, representing the peoples o t c
empire, who with uplifted arms support the rods. The design also occurs m Assyrian
furniture in Sargon’s reliefs and, again, in the relief of the royal tombs at Naqsh-i-

RThcmpSy'omamem.l character of all there teliefa it obvious. Eve, the audience scene
of Xc ,84! ia repeated, no. only in Ac Treasury, bu, also in the Hah of a Etaked
f c where it appCars high up in doorways, above five rows of Immortals .
S° Ti decorations, and smee it represents Artaxcrxes
T e end of "e period in which Persepolis was built (about 4<So of-), ‘howsp«
l “ tZ suretaste of Ac fust two generations of designers and craftsmen was on Ac

decline.
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