Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/385

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Some more Palaces other than at Persepolis. 363 We have made ample use of such materials as are due to the energy and intelligence of Dieulafoy ; we have employed them to represent, by means of drawings made upon the originals, types — the bull-capital, for instance— which until his discoveries were known only through interpretations more or less faithful (Figs. 185, 186). We have largely drawn from his vast store in order to enable the reader to understand what effects the Persian decorator could produce from day impressed into moulds, and the gay tints he might infuse into it by firiiig. Nevertheless* we do not propose doing for the great palace at Susa what we did for the principal buildings at Persepolis; it is only fitting that we should leave the honour and perils of the emprise to its discoverer. Apart from this scruple, our pen has been stayed by the fact that Dieulafoy has not yet published the work in which he intends to set forth the result of his explorations, the tracings and measurements effected on the site, the why and wherefore of his restorations. In default of a personal study, towards which dements were wanting, some surprise may be fdt at the absence in this place of a brief exposition relating to the restoration of the main building at Susa, or at least a transcript of his restored plan as presented to the public by Dieulafoy at the Exposition UniverseUe in 1889. The reasons which dedded the course we have taken are as follows : — M. Dieulafoy has published not one, but three successive plans of the building he calls Apad&na, and each is distingubhed by notable differences.^ In 1884 he gave us a plan with lateral colonnades, but with no anterior porch. At the time of its publication Dieulafoy, though he had seen Susa, had not yet made any exca- vations, so that we may dismiss it as premature and of no account But we confess to being puzzled when we turn to compare his plans of 1887 and 1889. In 1887 Dieulafoy was in possession of all the data which his labours had furnished him with. The plan he for- warded to the able critic who was his mouthpiece in the Gazdte archiologique was no more nor less than Feigusson s own plan of the hypostyle hall at Persepolis (see Fig. 151). The only point of

  • Dieulafoy, LArt antigue, etc., torn. IL Fig. 17; A Choisy " Les fouilles de

Suse et i'art antique de la Perse," p. 12, Fig. i {GoieUc archc.^ pp. 8-iS). See also a modd in xdief deposited in the misHon<rooin of tiie pemuinent exhibidon at the Public Instruction Office, on the fint floor of the palace. Digitized by Google