Media, Babylon and Persia : including a study of the Zend-Avesta or religion of Zoroaster, from the fall of Nineveh to the Persian war . f Kyros), hadSusa rebuilt and ornamented, and it was his palacefor which search was made first. But it was found thatthis palace had been destroyed by fire, and that on topof its remains had been erected anotlier and moresumptuous one, by his grandson, Artaxerxes, asproved by a long cuneiform inscription, containingthat kings name and parentage, which ran along amagnificent frieze of painted and glazed tiles, repre-senting striding lions (see ill. 44), and wh
Media, Babylon and Persia : including a study of the Zend-Avesta or religion of Zoroaster, from the fall of Nineveh to the Persian war . f Kyros), hadSusa rebuilt and ornamented, and it was his palacefor which search was made first. But it was found thatthis palace had been destroyed by fire, and that on topof its remains had been erected anotlier and moresumptuous one, by his grandson, Artaxerxes, asproved by a long cuneiform inscription, containingthat kings name and parentage, which ran along amagnificent frieze of painted and glazed tiles, repre-senting striding lions (see ill. 44), and which formed thedecoration of the pillared porticos. Of course thefrieze was not found in its place or entire, but had tobe patiently pieced together of fragments. These,however, turned up in such cpumtities as to allow therestoration of the frieze in a state very near complete-ness. A procession was thus obtained of nine ofthese superb animals, a work of art which was pro-nounced in no way inferior to the Babylonian modelsfrom which it is imitated. In the same manner, out of fragments carefully * See Story of Assyria, pp. 399, 14 a H — ^ p Q ?J ci. w A O ?2 I -qO 2 33^ , , jxj) j/:As/.t. collcctcil, ]\1 f. I )iriil;if()}succc-ciUd in rcconsl ructingiinollicr marxcllous piece of work, a frieze represent-ing archers of tlu: royal guard. One day, he says, thr\-would hriuL; nie a hand, llie next a foot in agolden boot. Adding piece to piece as they fitted,I put together the feet, ankles, legs, the skirt, thebod)-, the arm, the shoulder, and at last the head ofan archer. There was a procession of them as wellas t)f the lions. (See Frontispiece.) The costume issumptuous to the last degree ; it is the graceful andbecoming Median robe, the drapery of which, inthe natural fall and softness of the folds already be-trays the influence of Greek art, grafted on the con-ventional model of Assyrian slab-sculpture. Thecut of the clothes is the same for all, but the mate-
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