covered, mostly cylindrical seals of lapis-lazuli and hsematite, and
some terra-cottas—was less artistieal than Nineveh. Its statuary was
a branch of the Assyrian, not differing in style, hut only in perfection.
All the Babylonian monuments, without exception, are evidences
of the more Shemitic character of the country ; whither art
has been imported from Nineveh, without ever becoming thoroughly
understood.
A nobler spirit prevailed in Arian Persia. The royal palaces and
tombs of the Achæmenian
kings yield numerous specimens
of Persian art, mostly
belonging to the great time
of Persia under D a r iu s H ys-
taspe s and his son X e r x e s .
Nevertheless, one monument,
which shows the origin of
art under the Achæmenidæ,
has likewise escaped the ravages
of time, and is probably
the earliest of all the
Persian reliefs. V e speak of
the rock-seulpture at Murghàb,
close to Persepolis, representing
a man with four
wings, clad in the long Assyrian
robe without folds, and
bearing on his head the Egyptian
crown called “Atf,” which
is the peculiar distinction of the
God Chnum. The cuneiform
inscription, above the sculpture,
says, with grandeur and
simplicity: “ I am Cy r u s , the
king; the Achæmenian.”[32]
This monument was evidently,
Fig. 32.
Cyrus.141
then, erected in honour of Cyrus, hut it cannot have been
sculptured in the life-time of the conqueror, inasmuch as his wing?
(which are the Assyrian attributes of Godhead), and the crown of
Chnum (which is the Egyptian symbol of divine power), clearly indicate
an apotheosis. The peculiarity of the costume of Cyrus, which
ig pUrely Assyrian, without folds, forbids us to place the sculpture
in the time of Darius or his descendants ; whose monuments, with-
141 Vaux, Nineveh and Persepolis, 4th ed., London, 1865 ; Plate, pp 392-3.
out exception, are characterized by the Persian folds of the garment.
Thus, then, the relief of Murghàb must he the work of Cam-
byses, who, according to Diodorus Siculus,143 employed Egyptian
artists, and was probably the first to introduce art into Persia. According
to the rock-sculpture, however, he did not confine himself
to Egyptians, hut transplanted sculptors likewise from Babylonia and
Assyria to Pasargadæ, and dedicated their first work to the lasting
memory of his illustrious father (about 530 b . c.). Thus, we may
safely state that Persian art is a daughter of the Assyrian, a little
modified by Egyptian influences, but soon emancipating itself from
its early traditions by a purely national development, characterized
by the very high elegance of the drapery. Bonomi143 takes the
Persian style, wrongly, for a deterioration of Assyrian art ; but his
mistake is easily explained, since he formed his judgment upon some
fragments of a later period, which are now in the British Museum,
and upon the drawings of Ker Porter and Gore Ouseley. The Perse
of Elandin, and the Arménie of Texier, seem to have escaped his
attention. They are the only ones, notwithstanding, which do full
justice to the refined taste and the neat execution of the sculptures
of Persepolis. In comparison with the Assyrian Monuments of
Sargon and E s sarh a d do n, they take the same place, as, in Egypt,
does the elegant style of P sammeticus contrasted with the grandeur
of the statues of the A m enophs and T h utmo ses. "We must, however,
acknowledge that they are inferior to the reliefs of S a r d a n a pa l u s .
Although the head of Cyrus (as shown by the more accurate copy of
Texier144 [33] here presented,)
at Murghàb, is somewhat
damaged about the nose, it
is sufficiently characteristic
to show its pure Arian type.
The portrait o îX e r x e s ,146 [34]
is a fine specimen of the so-
termed Greek profile, which
we ought to call pure Arian.
The Achæmenidan sculptors
moreover, were very well acquainted
Fig. 33. Fig. 34.
with the peculiar
character of the different na-
142 Libro 1, capite 46.
143 Nineveh and its Palaces, p. 315.
L'Arménie, la Perse, et la Mésopotamie, II., pi. 84— “ B a s-r e lie f à Mourgàb, Cyrus.”
145 C o ste and F la n d in , Perse Ancienne, pi. 154; b ut compare the more beautiful copy in
T e x ie r ’s Arménie.