Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller.

  • Karl Otfried Müller
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    276/664
    6 faith. We have still to mention the dariks in which the re- presentation—the king himself as an archer—as well as the design closely correspond with the monuments of Persepolis. 7 In the times of the Arsacidse a Greek taste inherited from the Macedonian conquerors prevailed at the court; with the ex- ception of coins, however, nothing certain has been preserved; 8 the Sassanidse, in many respects restorers of ancestral customs and religion, exhibit in their works of art a turgid and taste- less style, derived from later Roman art and applied to orien- tal costume. 1. Ruins in the Persepolitan style on the Persian gulph, Morier i. p. 51. On Ecbatana, above §. 243. On Bisutun, especially Porter ii. p. 154. pi. 60. Comp. Hist, de I'Ac. des laser, xxvii. p. 169. Hoeck, p. 22. 29. 73 sqq. 2. The identity of Bagistanon, in Diodorus ii, 13, and Bap tana in Isidore, with Bisutun, I consider with Hoeck, p. 116, Mannert v, 2. s. 165. and others to be evident. The representation of Semiramis with 100 sa- traps reminds one very much of PersepoUtan art. The Syrian letters in Diodorus are probably Assyrian; but these' Aaav^iet y^a,fcf/.ix,ra., the Royal Persian characters especially for monuments, may have been merely cuneiform characters. [The monument at Behistun, on the road to Bag- dad and Hamadan, has become better known by the drawings and ex- planations of Major Rawlinson, Journ. of the R. Asiatic Society, vol. x. P. 1. L. 1846. It represents in a style like the Persepolitan, Darius Hystaspis, opposite to whom stand the different rebels who revolted throughout Upper Asia during the first years of his reign, and is ex- plained by numerous cuneiform characters, in agreement with an allu- sion of Herodotus. Further on works of the Sassanid period.] 3. Van is called Schamiramakert, Semiramocerta, in Armenian au- thors, who speak of columns, statues, and grottoes there. St. Martin, Notice sur le Voy. Litt. en Orient de M. Schulz, Journ. des Sav. 1828. p. 451. Grotefend in Seebode's Krit. Bibliothek 1829. Bd. i. no. 30. Kunstblatt 1829. N. 32. The cuneiform inscriptions give the name of Xerxes according to Grotefend's method of decyphering adopted by St. Martin; notwithstanding this, however, the Persian kings may have also found here ancient Semiramidan works (that is works of the Assy- rian dynasties generally). Burnouf finds ahura mazda, Ormuzd, extrait d'un m6m. sur deux inscr. cuneiformes trouvees pr^s d'Hamadan, Journ. des Sav. 1836. p. 283. 321. 4. See especially Grotefend's explanations, Amalthea i. s. 93. ii. s. 65. 6. Magians appeared early at Babylon and Chaldeans in Persia; and even in Berosus Chaldseisra and Magism appear so mixed up together that the Babylonian Kronos (El) is put for Zeruane and caUed the father of Aramazdes. Probably the Babylonian cylinder in Porter ii. pi. 80. n. 1. which represents Ormuzd on high, and beneath him three figures, of which two are evidently of divine nature, is also Perso-Chaldsean; one of them carries a hatchet (Hke Zeus Labrandeus in Caria, and Sandon in Lydia), and stands upon a unicorn; it has a moon above it, and the one