( 487 ) CHAPTER VIII. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PERSIAN ART. In describing the principal monuments whose remains represent the art-productions of Persia, we had occasion more than once to point out the resemblances that exist between them and the monu- ments of Egypt, Assyria, and Greece. Such resemblances could not be explained save on the hypothesis that Persia had copied and learnt of foreign masters. When the buildings of Persepolis were erected, and her bas-reliefs sculptured, the genius of Chaldaea and of Egypt had run its course. As to Greece, if she had not yet given to the world her fairest works, she was on the eve of giving them, and her plastic art was already imbued with original features which singled it forth from that of the antique cultures of the East Pefsian art, then, is neither a primitive nor a simple art, in that it was acted upon by many and divergent influences, and conse- quently made up of dtfTerent elements, some of whtdi came to it from the great nations which the victorious hand of the Achxmenidae had caused to fall from their high estate^ whilst it borrowed others from that young nation the Persians had met on their path when their kings had led them to the borders of the Mediterranean. The conclusion we have reached cannot have come as a surprise upon the reader, since every page in this study has led up to it ; but it must be admitted that we feel somewhat puzzled when we try to sum up and apportion to each master the share he con- . tributed to the architectonic and sculptural types of Persian art. Nevertheless we are bound to do for it what we did for Phoenician art, and try to analyze it to the best of our power, so as to have a clear understanding in regard to the origin of every item of an art which is neither the result of the primary conditions where it developed itself, nor to be explained by the ancient habits Digitized by Google
