Sculptures near Persepolis.
Drawn by James Morier Esqr.
Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Paternoster Row, May 1, 1811.
17th. On quitting Persepolis, I left our party in order to examine a ruined building on the plains, which at a distance is generally pointed out as a demolished caravanserai. I passed the stream of the Rood Khonéh Sewund to the North, nearly where the road takes a N. E. direction, and came to a fine mass of stone, thirty-seven feet four inches square, which appears to have formed the base of some building. It is composed of two layers of marble blocks, the lower range of which extends about two feet beyond the line of the upper. The largest blocks, according to my measurement, are ten feet four inches in length, four feet four in depth, and three feet four in breadth; all still retain a moulding, and traces here and there of masonry which must have connected them with others. The whole building is filled up in the middle by a black marble, and in its N. E. angle one stone is raised higher than the rest. In the same angle, is a channel cut, as if something had been fitted into it. I took the following bearings: foot of the rocks of Nakshi Rustam, N. 10 W. two miles; foot of the mountain of Persepolis, S. two miles: our encampment S. 20 W. two miles; road to Ispahan, N. 80 E.
I was called from this spot by a Chatter sent by the Envoy to conduct me to some sculptures, which he had himself seen, (about four miles from the place on the same mountain of Persepolis,) by the side of the road to Ispahan. I found them indeed worthy of the minutest investigation, as no preceding traveller has described them with any sufficient accuracy. They are situated in a recess of the mountain, formed by projecting and picturesque rocks. The sculpture facing the road is composed of seven colossal figures and two small ones. (Plate XIX.) The two principal characters are placed in the centre; the one to the left is the same (not in position indeed, but in general circumstance) as that which we had so often seen represented at Shapour and Nakshi Rustam. He has the distinguishing globe on his head, and offers a ring to the opposite figure; who, seizing it with his right hand, holds a staff or club in his left. Behind the personage with the globe, are two figures, one of whom, with a young and pleasing face holds the fan, the customary ensign of dignity: and the other, with hard and marked features, and a beard, rests on the pommel of his sword with one hand, and beckons with the other. Behind the chief on the right, are two figures, which from the feminine cast of their countenances appear to be women; one wears an extraordinary cap, and the other, whose hair falls in ringlets on her shoulders, makes an expressive motion with her right hand, as if she were saying, “Be silent.” Between the two principal figures, are introduced two very diminished beings, who do not reach higher than the knees of their colossal companions. In dress they differ materially from each other, and one holds a long staff. To the left, on a fragment of the rock, is the bust of a figure, who also holds his hand in a beckoning and significant posture. The largest of these figures I reckoned to be ten feet in height; the small ones two feet eight inches. The whole of this is so much disfigured, that it is difficult to ascertain its various and singular details.
Sculptures near Persepolis.
Drawn by James Morier Esqr.
Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Paternoster Row, May 1, 1811.
In the same recess, and to the left of this sculptured rock, forming an angle with it, is another monument in a much higher state of preservation; parts of it indeed have suffered so little, that they appear to be fresh at this day from the chissel. (Plate XX.) The same royal personage, so often represented with a globe on his head, and seated on horseback, here forms the principal character of the groupe. His face, indeed, has been completely destroyed by the Mahomedans, but the ornaments of his person and those of his horse, (more profusely bestowed on both, than on any of the similar figures which we had seen) are likewise more accurately preserved. They merit a particular description; because as the composition was probably designed to represent the King in his greatest state, every part of his dress is distinctly delineated. I assign this subject to the sculpture, because no other personage of rival dignity appears in the piece; and because the attitude of the chief announces parade and command; for he presents a full face to the spectator, and his right hand, though now much mutilated, still rests on his side to indicate his ease and his independence. Nine figures, of which the first is nine feet high, wait behind him; and, from the marks of respect in which they stand, can be attendants only on his grandeur. On each side of his head swells an immense circumference of curls; he wears an embossed necklace, which falls low on his breast, and is therefore, perhaps, rather the upper termination of his garment; but its counterpart, an ornament of the same description round the waist, is certainly a girdle. His cloak is fastened on his left breast by two massive clasps. A rich belt is carried from his right shoulder to his left hip, across an under garment, which, from the extreme delicacy of its folds, appears to be formed of a very fine cloth or muslin. The drapery of some loose trowsers, which cover his legs down to the very ancles, displays equal delicacy, and is probably, therefore, of the same texture. From the ancles a sort of bandage extends itself in flowing folds, and adds a rich finish to the whole. On the thigh there appears to hang a dagger. The horse is splendidly accoutred with chains of a circular ornament: his length, from the breast to the tail, is seven feet two inches; and on the chest is a Greek inscription, of which the letters are about an inch in height, and correspond in form with those of the latter empire.
Opposite to this sculpture, in the same recess and on the right of the first, is another, containing the same two figures on horseback, holding a ring, which we had seen at Shapour and at Nakshi Rustam. On the general merit of these remains, I may say, that they are superior to those at Nakshi Rustam, and equal to those at Shapour.