§ II Sculpture
In sculpture, even more than in architecture, the triple influence, Chaldæo-Assyrian, Egyptian and Græco-Ionian, which is dominant among the works of the Achæmenids, is to be traced. Like the sculptures of Ninevite palaces, those of Pasargadæ and Persepolis are in low relief, the figures being always placed in profile, and arranged for the purpose of lining the lower portion of the walls. In the execution, however, the chisel of a Greek artist is felt, or at least of one who has studied under Greek masters. M.L. Heuzey58 reminds us that an archaic Greek school existed in Thessaly, which was remarkably flourishing, and the productions of which, such as the bas-relief known under the name of the Exaltation of the Flower, were closely analogous in the details and the finish of the work to the Persepolitan and Susian sculptures; there are the same draperies with broad flat folds, and the same methods of treatment in the muscles of the face and limbs. The most ancient Persian sculpture known is the famous bas-relief in which the full-length portrait of Cyrus himself has been preserved for us (fig. 128). Cyrus, of Iranian origin, has a face like that of an European; he has nothing in common with Egyptian and Assyrian faces; the top of his head is bald or shaved, his beard is slightly curled, his hair is short and matted. But everything else in this royal figure is of foreign importation. His head is crowned with a triple disk surrounded by Uræi, in the fashion of Egyptian deities; the king is furnished with wings, like the genii of Assyria and Chaldæa, and these wings, with rows of well-marked feathers, are like those of the Ninevite monsters. Even the border of the robe is decorated with a broad Assyrian fringe; finally, the king holds in his right hand a statuette, the headdress of which is surmounted by the Egyptian Uræus.
After the portrait of Cyrus in chronological order come the bas-reliefs of Persepolis. These are sometimes episodes in the Chaldæo-Assyrian epic of Izdubar, which, imitated not only in Persia but also in the Greek world, gave birth to the legends of Heracles and Theseus, so often represented on archaic Greek monuments. In other bas-reliefs the court-officers walk in procession with the tributary satraps, or else (fig. 129) the “king of kings” himself, calm and impassive like a Colossus whom nothing can terrify, plunges his dagger, without moving a muscle of his face, into the heart of a lion, a bull or a fantastic animal, which rises erect upon its hind legs, ready to devour him. Do not the exaggerated muscles of the beast betray a servile copy of the Assyrian monsters? Elsewhere, on the wall which borders the staircase of the palace of Darius, a lion devours a bull (fig. 130); he bites him on the thigh, and furiously digs his powerful claws into his haunches. Though the lifelike attitude of the two animals strikes us, it reminds us, at the same time, of the Chaldæo-Assyrian cylinders in which a similar subject is reproduced. Farther on, on the same wall of the staircase, servants appear to mount the stairs, with their hands loaded with presents of all kinds which they are about to offer to the “king of kings”; Assyrian sculptures contain analogous scenes. The same must be said of the bas-relief of the central door of Darius’ palace, in which the prince is seen attended by two servants, one holding the umbrella and the other the fly-flap (see fig. 122); how many times this subject is repeated on the Ninevite walls, with the same naïve representation of the king, like a Greek hero, as of colossal stature in comparison with the persons of his suite, in order to exhibit his superiority and strength! On one of the walls of the apadâna of Xerxes’ palace, the prince sitting on a high throne, with a canopy above his head and his feet upon a footstool, is seen surrounded by his guards. He is receiving a personage of high rank, doubtless a satrap, who is bringing on his shoulder the tribute of his province. In the compartments below rows of Persian soldiers are drawn up in line, probably those that composed the famous guard of the Immortals; they carry lances, bows and quivers, and have swords at their sides. The throne is of a truly Assyrian form. “The canopy, made of woven stuff,” says M. Dieulafoy,59 “is decorated with a very curious design. Each strip is composed of two similar bands heavily embroidered. A band covered with rosettes is followed by a band adorned with bulls like those which decorate the cornice of the royal tombs; in the centre appears the winged emblem of Ahura-Mazda. The lower band ends in a trimming covered with rosettes, and a thick fringe; round patches adorn the angles. The position of the winged emblems on the top give this piece of drapery the appearance of an Egyptian tent, but the procession of bulls, the trimmings, the fringes, and the rich embroidery are of Assyrian origin.”
The symbolic figure of Ormuzd, with his winged disk, is a reproduction of the similar divine figure so often seen hovering over the king and his soldiers on the Assyrian bas-reliefs. Scenes of most significant cruelty also passed from Chaldæo-Assyrian sculpture into Persian sculpture. On the bas-relief which Darius caused to be carved upon the rock of Behistun, to recount his exploits to distant posterity, the king is holding his bow as Sennacherib does, and placing his foot on the breast of a prisoner who holds out his hands in supplication, while nine other kings stand bound with chains, with their hands behind their backs and cords around their necks60.
Like the porticoes of Ninevite palaces, those of Persepolis are garnished with human-headed bulls; the latter have preserved the walking attitudes, the curled hair, and often even the high tiara decorated with rosettes and feathers, which characterise their elder brothers on the banks of the Tigris. Only, while the Assyrian bulls are sometimes placed even with the surface of the façade and facing one another in the doorway, the Persepolitan bulls, on the contrary, are always placed parallel on each side of the opening and look outwards, facing the terrace. Finally, in the sculpture of these gigantic monsters the Persian artist shows himself superior to the Assyrian artist: while preserving the animals in the same hieratic posture, he has had the skill to soften the modelling of the limbs, and to give to the wings a more elegant and graceful curve; the bulls have only four legs instead of five; their flanks are more supple and plumper; the horns, emblems of strength, which surround the head of the Ninevite monsters, are suppressed; the anatomical forms and the respective proportions of the different parts of the body are more closely studied; we have here Assyrian art interpreted by artists formed in the school of the Greeks.