| Fig. 144.—Persian seal. Conical. | Fig. 145.—Seal of Artaxerxes (Louvre). | Fig. 146.—Persian seal. Conical. |
The special distinctions of the productions of the gem-engraver’s art under the Achæmenid dynasty are the sobriety and exactness of the work and the conventional character of the figured scenes; besides this, in consequence of the influence of Egypt and Phœnicia, the fashion spreads more and more of substituting for cylinders conical, rhomboidal or spherical stones, flattened on one side, in order to form a field for the engraving. On these cones of chalcedony or agate the most common subjects are: the “king of kings” standing or kneeling, crowned with the denticulated tiara or
Fig. 147.—Persian seal (Cabinet des médailles).
cidaris, and drawing his bow—a type analogous to that of the coins known under the name of Daries; the king stabbing a lion which stands erect before him; a pontiff before the fire-altar, adoring Ormuzd; sphinxes and gryphons which remind us of the Assyrian kirubu. An opal seal ([fig. 145]) obtained at Susa by M. Dieulafoy, shows two sphinxes crowned with the tiara of Upper Egypt in adoration before the winged disk of Ormuzd; in the centre, in a little medallion, is the portrait of the Achæmenid prince, no doubt Artaxerxes Mnemon. The delicate execution of the royal portrait is striking, and the elegant forms of the sphinxes are no less worthy of remark. As among the Assyro-Chaldæans, it is in the representation of animals—lions, deer, antelopes, sphinxes, and gryphons—that the genius of the Persian engraver reveals its full strength. The winged and horned gryphon found on an engraved gem (fig. 147) is significantly analogous to a small limestone bas-relief in the De Luynes collection ([fig. 148]) which shows in what fashion Persian art interpreted the Assyrian kirubu, and the modifications which it required. The monster has the body and fore paws of a lion; his hind legs, armed with powerful claws, are those of an eagle; he has the ears of an ox and the horns of a wild goat; his eye, face, and half-open beak belong to the falcon; a bristling mane adorns a neck proudly arched like that of a horse; he has a lion’s tail; his great wings with well-marked feathers resemble in their development those of the Persepolitan bulls. We know nothing in Persian art superior to this figure, the symbol of strength and power, in which so many discordant elements are combined with so fortunate a harmony.[64] At Susa and Persepolis, as at Nineveh and Babylon, minor sculpture was not inferior to sculpture on a grand scale, and the style of the engraver sometimes produced as noble and as striking effects as the chisel of the statuary: the copy did not yield to the model.
