_On the Architecture and Ornamental Art of the Parthians._
The modern historian of Architecture observes, when he reaches the
period with which we have had to deal in this volume, that, with the
advent of Alexander, Oriental architecture disappears, and that its
history is an absolute blank from the downfall of the Achaemenians in
B.C. 331 to the rise of the Sassanians, about A.D. 226. The statement
made involves a certain amount of exaggeration; but still it expresses,
roughly and strongly, a curious and important fact. The Parthians were
not, in any full or pregnant sense of the word, builders. They did not
aim at leaving a material mark upon the world by means of edifices
or other great works. They lacked the spirit which had impelled
successively the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Persians to cover
Western Asia with architectural monuments, proofs at once of the wealth,
and the grand ideas, of those who raised them. Parthia, compared to
these pretentious empires, was retiring and modest. The monarchs,
however rich they may have been, affected something of primitive
rudeness and simplicity in their habits and style of life, their
dwellings and temples, their palaces and tombs. It is difficult indeed
to draw the line in every case between pure Parthian work and Sassanian;
but on the whole there is, no doubt, reason to believe that the
architectural remains in Mesopotamia and Persia which belong to the
period between Alexander and the Arab conquest, are mainly the work of
the Sassanian or New Persian kingdom, and that comparatively few of them
can be ascribed with confidence to a time anterior to A.D. 227. Still a
certain number, which have about them indications of greater antiquity
than the rest, or which belong to sites famous in Parthian rather than
in Persian times, may reasonably be regarded as in all probability
structures of the Arsacid period; and from these we may gather at least
the leading characteristics of the Parthian architecture, its aims
and resources, its style and general effect, while from other
remains--scanty indeed, and often mutilated--we may obtain a tolerable
notion of their sculpture and other ornamental art.
The most imposing remains which seem certainly assignable to the
Parthian period are those of Hatra, or El-Hadhr, visited by Mr. Layard
in 1846, and described at length by Mr. Ross in the ninth volume of the
“Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,” as well as by Mr. Fergusson,
in his “History of Architecture.” Hatra became known as a place of
importance in the early part of the second century after Christ. It
successfully resisted Trajan in A.D. 116, and Severus in A.D. 198. It
is then described as a large and populous city, defended by strong
and extensive walls, and containing within it a temple of the Sun,
celebrated for the great value of its offerings. It enjoyed its own
kings at this time, who were regarded as of Arabian stock, and were
among the more important of the Parthian tributary monarchs. By the year
A.D. 363 Hatra had gone to ruin, and is then described as “long since
deserted.” Its flourishing period thus belongs to the space between A.D.
100 and A.D. 300; and its remains, to which Mr. Fergusson assigns the
date A.D. 250, must be regarded as probably at least a century earlier,
and consequently as indicating the character of the architecture
which prevailed under the later Parthians, and which, if Sassanian
improvements had not obliterated them, we should have found upon the
site of Ctesiphon.
The city of Hatra was enclosed by a circular wall of great thickness,
built of large square-cut stones, and strengthened at intervals of
about 170 yards by square towers or bastions. [PLATE IV. Fig. 1.] Its
circumference considerably exceeded three miles. Outside the wall was a
broad and very deep ditch, and on the further side of the ditch was
an earthen rampart of considerable height and thickness. Two detached
forts, situated on eminences, commanded the approaches to the place, one
towards the east, and the other towards the north. The wall was pierced
by four gateways, of which the principal one faced the east.
[Illustration: PLATE 4.]
The circular space within the walls was divided into two portions by a
water-course passing across it from north to south, and running somewhat
east of the centre, which thus divided the circle into two unequal
parts. The eastern portion was left comparatively clear of buildings,
and seems to have been used mainly as a burial-ground; in the
western were the public edifices and the more important houses of the
inhabitants. Of the former by far the most remarkable was one which
stood nearly in the centre of the city, and which has been called by
some a palace, by others a temple, but which may best be regarded as
combining both uses. [PLATE IV. Fig. 2.] This building stood within a
walled enclosure of an oblong square shape, about 800 feet long by 700
broad. The wall surrounding it was strengthened with bastions, like the
wall around the city. The enclosure comprised two courts, an inner and
an outer. The outer court, which lay towards the east, and was first
entered, was entirely clear of buildings, while the inner court
contained two considerable edifices. Of these the less important was
one which stretched from north to south across the entire inclosure, and
abutted upon the outer court; this was confused in plan, and consisted
chiefly of a number of small apartments, which have been regarded as
guard-rooms. The other was a building of greater pretensions. It was
composed mainly of seven vaulted halls, all of them parallel one to
another, and all facing eastward, three being of superior and four of
inferior size. The smaller halls (Nos. I., III., IV., and VI., on the
plan) were about thirty feet long by twenty wide, and had a height of
thirty feet; the larger ones measured ninety feet in length, and were
from thirty-five to forty feet broad, with a height of sixty feet.
All were upon the same plan. They had semicircular vaulted roofs, no
windows, and received their light from the archway at the east end,
which was either left entirely open, or perhaps closed with curtains.
Externally, the eastern facade of the building, which was evidently its
main front, had for ornament, besides the row of seven arches, a series
of pillars, or rather pilasters, from which the arches sprang, some
sculptures on the stones composing the arches, and one or two emblematic
figures in the spaces left between the pilasters. The sculptures on
the stones of the arches consisted either of human heads, or of
representations of a female form, apparently floating in air. [PLATE
IV. Fig. 3.] An emblematic sculpture between the fourth and fifth arch
represented a griffin with twisted tail, raised about 5 feet above the
ground. The entire length of the facade was about 300 feet.
The interior of the smaller halls had no ornament; but the larger ones
were decorated somewhat elaborately. Here the side walls were broken by
three squared pilasters, rising to the commencement of the vaulting, and
terminated by a quasi-capital of ornamental work, consisting of a series
of ovals, each oval containing in its centre a round ball of dark stone.
Underneath these quasi-capitals, at the distance of from two to three
feet, ran a cornice, which crossed the pilasters, and extended the whole
length of the apartment, consisting of flowers and half-ovals, each oval
containing a half-ball of the same dark stone as the capitals. [PLATE
IV. Fig. 4.] Finally, on the pilasters, immediately below the cornice,
were sculptured commonly either two or three human heads, the length of
each head being about two feet, and the faces representing diverse types
of humanity, some old and some young, some male and some female, some
apparently realistic, some idealized and more or less grotesque in their
accompaniments. The drawing of the heads is said to have been full of
spirit, and their general effect is pronounced life-like and striking.
The seven halls, which have been described, were divided into two
groups, of three and four respectively, by a low fence, which ran from
east to west across the inner court, from the partition wall separating
the third and fourth halls to the buildings which divided the inner
court from the outer. It is probable that this division separated the
male and female apartments. The female ornamentation of the large hall
(No. II.) belonging to the southern group is perhaps an indication of
the sex of its inmates; and another sign that these were the female
quarters is to be found in the direct communication existing between
this portion of the building and “the Temple” (No. VIII.), which could
not be reached from the male apartments except by a long circuit round
the building.
The “Temple” itself was an apartment of a square shape, each side being
about forty feet. It was completely surrounded by a vaulted passage,
into which light came from two windows at its south-west and north-west
corners. The Temple was entered by a single doorway, the position of
which was directly opposite an opening leading into the passage from
Hall No. II. Above this doorway was a magnificent frieze, the character
of which is thought to indicate the religious purpose of the structure.
[PLATE V. Fig. 1.] The interior of the Temple was without ornamentation,
vaulted, and except for the feeble light which entered by the single
doorway, dark. On the west side a portal led into the passage from the
outer air.
[Illustration: PLATE 5.]
Besides these main apartments, the edifice which we are describing
contained a certain number of small rooms, lying behind the halls, and
entered by doorways opening from them. One or two such rooms are
found behind each of the smaller halls; and another of somewhat larger
dimensions lay behind the great hall (numbered VII. in the plan),
forming the extreme north-western corner of the building. These rooms
were vaulted and had no windows, receiving their only light from the
small doorways by which they were entered.
It is believed that the entire edifice, or at any rate the greater
portion of it, had an upper story. Traces of such a structure appear
over the halls numbered I and VI.; and it is thought that the story
extended over the entire range of halls. One traveller, on conjectural
grounds, even assigns to the building an elevation of three stories, and
ventures to restore the second and third in the mode represented in the
woodcut. [PLATE V. Fig. 2.] According to this author the upper portion
of the edifice resembled in many respects the great palace of the
Sassanian monarchs, of which splendid remains still exist on the site
of Ctesiphon, where they are known as the Takht-i-Khuzroo, or Palace of
Chosroes. That palace was, however, on a very different plan from the
Hatra one, comprising as it did one hall only, but of a size vastly
superior to any of those at Hatra, and two wings, one on either side of
the hall, made up of dwelling and sleeping apartments.
The few windows which exist at Hatra are oblong square in shape, as in
general are the doorways connecting one apartment with another. In one
case there is an arched doorway, or niche, which has been blocked up.
There are no passages except the one which surrounds “the Temple,” the
apartments generally leading directly one into another. In some cases
the lintel of a doorway is formed of a single stone, and ornamented with
very delicate carving. The doorways are for the most part towards the
corners of apartments; that of the Temple, however, is in the centre of
its eastern wall.
The general style of the buildings at Hatra has been said to be “Roman
or Byzantine;” and it has even been supposed that in the style of the
ornaments and sculptured figures may be traced the corrupt taste and
feeble outline of the artists of Constantinople. But there is abundant
reason to believe that the Hatra Palace was built nearly two centuries
before Constantinople came into existence; and, although the large-use
of the round arch in vaulting may be due to the spread of Roman
architectural ideas, yet there are no grounds for supposing that any but
native artists, Parthian subjects, were employed in the work, or that
it is other than a fair specimen of what was achieved by the Parthian
builders during the later period of the empire. The palace of Volagases
III. at Ctesiphon, which Avidius Cassius destroyed in his invasion, was
most likely of the same general character--a combination of lofty halls
suitable for ceremonies and audiences with small and dark sleeping or
living rooms, opening out of them, the whole placed in the middle of a
paved court, and the male apartments carefully divided from those of the
women.
The remains at Hatra are further remarkable for a considerable number
of reservoirs and tombs. The open space between the town proper and
the eastern wall and gate is dotted with edifices of a square shape,
standing apart from one another, which are reasonably regarded as
sepulchres. These are built in a solid way, of hewn stone, and consist
either of one or two chambers. They vary in size from twenty feet square
to forty, and are generally of about the same height. Some are perfectly
plain, but the exteriors of others are ornamented with pilasters. The
reservoirs occur in the paved court which surrounds the main building;
they have narrow apertures, but expand below the aperture into the shape
of a bell, and are carefully constructed of well-cut stones closely
fitted together.
The material used at Hatra is uniformly a brownish gray limestone; and
the cutting is so clean and smooth that it is doubted whether the stones
have needed any cement. If cement has been employed, at any rate
it cannot now be seen, the stones everywhere appearing to touch one
another.
There are several buildings remaining in Persia, the date of which
cannot be much later than that of the Hatra edifice; but, as it is on
the whole more probable that they belong to the Sassanian than to the
Parthian period, no account of them will be given here. It will be
sufficient to observe that their architecture grows naturally out of
that which was in use at Hatra, and that thus we are entitled to ascribe
to Parthian times and to subjects of the Parthian Empire that impulse
to Oriental architecture which awoke it to renewed life after a sleep
of ages, and which in a short time produced such imposing results as
the Takht-i-Khuzroo at Ctesiphon, the ruins of Shapur, and the triumphal
arch at Takht-i-Bostan.
The decorative and fictile art of the Parthians has received no
inconsiderable amount of illustration from remains discovered, in the
years 1850-1852, in Babylonia. In combination with a series of Parthian
coins were found by Mr. Loftus, on the site of the ancient Erech (now
Warka), a number of objects in clay, plaster, and metal, enabling us
to form a fair idea of the mode in which purely Parthian edifices were
decorated during the best times of the empire, and of the style that
then prevailed in respect of personal ornaments, domestic utensils, and
other objects capable, more or less, of aesthetic handling. The remains
discovered comprised numerous architectural fragments in plaster and
brick; a large number of ornamental coffins; several statuettes in
terra-cotta; jars, jugs, vases, and lamps in earthenware; some small
glass bottles; and various personal decorations, such as beads, rings,
and earrings.
The architectural fragments consisted of capitals of pillars [PLATE
V. Fig. 3], portions of cornices, and specimens of a sort of diapering
which seems to have been applied to screens or thin partitions. The
capitals were somewhat heavy in design, and at first sight struck the
spectator as barbarous; but they exhibited a good deal of ingenious
boldness, an absence of conventionality, and an occasional quaintness
of design not unworthy of a Gothic decorator. One especially, which
combines the upper portion of a human figure, wearing the puffed-out
hair or wig, which the Parthians affected, with an elegant leaf rising
from the neck of the capital, and curving gracefully under the abacus,
has decided merit, and is “suggestive of the later Byzantine style.” The
cornices occasionally reminded the discoverer of the remarkable frieze
at El-Hadhr, and were characterized by the same freedom and boldness
of invention as the capitals. But the most curious remains were the
fragments of a sort of screen work, pieces of plaster covered with
geometric designs upon both sides, the patterns on the two sides
differing. [PLATE V. Fig. 4.] These designs, though unlike in many
respects the arabesques of the Mohammedans, yet seemed on the whole to
be their precursors, the “geometric curves and tracery” appearing
to “shadow forth the beauty and richness of a style which afterwards
followed the tide of Mohammedan conquest to the remotest corners of the
known world.”
The ornamental coffins were of a coarse glazed earthenware, bluish-green
in hue, and belonged to the kind which has been called “slipper-shaped.”
[PLATE VI. Fig. 1.] They varied in length from three feet to six, and
had a large aperture at their upper end, by means of which the body was
placed in them, and a flat lid to close this aperture, ornamented like
the coffin, and fixed in its place by a fine lime cement. A second
aperture at the lower extremity of the coffin allowed for the escape
of the gases disengaged during decomposition. The ornamentation of the
coffins varied, but consisted generally of small figures of men, about
six or seven inches in length, the most usual figure being a warrior
with his arms akimbo and his legs astride, wearing on his head a
coiffure, like that which is seen on the Parthian coins, and having a
sword hanging from the belt. [PLATE VI. Fig. 2.]
[Illustration: PLATE 6.]
Of the statuettes in terra-cotta, one of the most curious represented a
Parthian warrior, recumbent, and apparently about to drink out of a cup
held in the left hand. [PLATE VI. Fig. 3.] The figure was clad in a
long coat of mail, with greaves on the legs and a helmet upon the
head. Others represented females; these had lofty head-dresses, which
sometimes rose into two peaks or horns, recalling the costume of English
ladies in the time of Henry IV. These figures were veiled and carefully
draped about the upper part of the person, but showed the face, and had
the legs bare from the knee downwards.
The jars, jugs, vases, and lamps greatly resembled those of the Assyrian
and Babylonian periods, but were on the whole more elegant and artistic.
The forms appended will give a tolerable idea of the general character
of these vessels. [PLATE VI. Fig. 4.] They were of various sizes, and
appear to have been placed in the tombs, partly as the offerings of
friends and well-wishers, partly with the more superstitious object of
actually supplying the deceased with the drink and light needful for him
on his passage from earth to the realms of the dead.
The glass bottles were, perhaps, lachrymatories. They had no peculiar
characteristics, but were almost exactly similar to objects of the same
kind belonging to the times of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires. They
exhibited the same lovely prismatic colors, which have been so admired
in the glass of those kingdoms, an effect of decomposition, which,
elsewhere generally disfiguring, in the case of this material enhances
the original beauty of the object tenfold by clothing it in hues of the
utmost brilliance and delicacy.
The personal decorations consisted chiefly of armlets, bangles, beads,
rings, and ear-rings. They were in gold, silver, copper, and brass. Some
of the smaller gold ornaments, such as earrings, and small plates
or beads for necklaces and fillets, were “of a tasteful and elegant
design.” The finger-rings were coarser, while the toe-rings, armlets,
and bangles, were for the most part exceedingly rude and barbarous.
Head-dresses in gold, tall and pointed, are said to have been found
occasionally; but the museums of Europe have not yet been able to secure
any, as they are usually melted down by the finders. Broad ribbons of
gold, which may have depended like strings from a cap, are commoner, and
were seen by Mr. Loftus. Altogether, the ornaments indicated a strong
love of personal display, and the possession of considerable wealth, but
no general diffusion of a correct taste, nor any very advanced skill in
design or metallurgy.
Of purely aesthetic art--art, that is, into which the idea of the useful
does not enter at all--the Parthians appear scarcely to have had an
idea. During the five centuries of their sway, they seem to have set
up no more than some half dozen bas-reliefs. There is, indeed, only
one such work which can be positively identified as belonging to the
Parthian period by the inscription which accompanies it. The other
presumedly Parthian reliefs are adjudged to the people by art critics
merely from their style and their locality, occurring as they do within
the limits of the Parthian kingdom, and lacking the characteristics
which attach to the art of those who preceded and of those who followed
the Parthians in these countries.
[Illustration: PLATE 7.]
The one certainly Parthian bas-relief is that which still exists on the
great rock of Behistun, at the foot of the mountain, raised but slightly
above the plain. It seems to have contained a series of tall figures,
looking towards the right, and apparently engaged in a march or
procession, while above and between them were smaller figures on
horseback, armed with lances, and galloping in the same direction. One
of these was attended by a figure of Fame or Victory, flying in the air,
and about to place a diadem around his brow. The present condition of
the sculpture is extremely bad. Atmospheric influences have worn away
the larger figures to such an extent that they are discerned with
difficulty; and a recent Governor of Kirmanshah has barbarously inserted
into the middle of the relief an arched niche, in which he has placed
a worthless Arabic inscription. It is with difficulty that we form any
judgment of the original artistic merit of a work which presents itself
to us in such a worn and mutilated form; but, on the whole, we are
perhaps justified in pronouncing that it must at its best have been
one of inferior quality, even when compared only with the similar
productions of Asiatics. The general character is rather that of the
Sassanian than of the Assyrian or Persian period. The human figures have
a heavy clumsiness about them that is unpleasant to contemplate; the
horses are rudely outlined, and are too small for the men; the figure
of Fame is out of all proportion to the hero whom she crowns, and the
diadem which she places on his head is ridiculous, being nearly as large
as herself! On the other hand, there is spirit in the attitudes of both
men and horses; the Fame floats well in air; and the relief is free from
that coarse grotesqueness which offends us in the productions of the
Sassanian artists.
Another, bas-relief, probably, but not quite certainly Parthian, exists
in the gorge of Sir-pul-i-zohab, and has been recently published in
the great work of M. Flandin. [PLATE VIII.] The inscription on this
monument, though it has not yet been deciphered, appears to be written
in the alphabet found upon the Parthian coins. The monument seems to
represent a Parthian king, mounted on horseback, and receiving a chaplet
at the hand of a subject. The king wears a cap bound round with the
diadem, the long ends of which depend over his shoulder. He is clothed
in a close-fitting tunic and loose trowsers, which hang down upon
his boots, and wears also a short cloak fastened under the chin, and
reaching nearly to the knee. The horse which he bestrides is small, but
strongly made; the tail is long, and the mane seems to be plaited.
Thus far the representation, though somewhat heavy and clumsy, is not
ill-drawn; but the remaining figure--that of the Parthian subject--is
wholly without merit. The back of the man is turned, but the legs are in
profile; one arm is ridiculously short, and the head is placed too near
the left shoulder. It would seem that the artist, while he took pains
with the representation of the monarch, did not care how ill he rendered
the subordinate figure, which he left in the unsatisfactory condition
that may be seen in the preceding woodcut.
[Illustration: PLATE 8.]
A set of reliefs, discovered by the Baron de Bode in the year 1841, are
also thought by the best judges to be Parthian. The most important of
them represents a personage of consequence, apparently a Magus, who
seems to be in the act of consecrating a sacred cippus, round which
have been placed wreaths or chaplets. (PLATE IX.) Fifteen spectators are
present, arranged in two rows, one above the other, all except the first
of them standing. The first sits upon a rude chair or stool. The figures
generally are in an advanced stage of decay; but that of the Magus
is tolerably well preserved, and probably indicates with sufficient
accuracy the costume and appearance of the great hierarchs under the
Parthians, The conical cap described by Strabo is very conspicuous.
Below this the hair is worn in the puffed-out fashion of the later
Parthian period. The upper lip is ornamented by moustaches, and the chin
covered by a straight beard. The figure is dressed in a long sleeved
tunic, over which is worn a cloak, fastened at the neck by a round
brooch, and descending a little below the knees. The legs are encased
in a longer and shorter pair of trowsers, the former plain, the latter
striped perpendicularly. Round the neck is worn a collar or necklace;
and on the right arm are three armlets and three bracelets. The conical
cap appears to be striped or fluted.
[Illustration: PLATE 9.]
On the same rock, but in no very evident connection with the main
representation, is a second relief, in which a Parthian cavalier,
armed with a bow and arrows, and a spear, contends with a wild animal,
seemingly a bear. [PLATE X. Fig. 1.] A long flowing robe here takes
the place of the more ordinary tunic and trowsers. On the head is worn a
rounded cap or tiara. The hair has the usual puffed-out appearance. The
bow is carried in the left hand, and the quiver hangs from, the saddle
behind the rider, while with his right hand he thrusts his spear into
the beast’s neck. The execution of the whole tablet seems to have been
rude; but it has suffered so much from time and weather, that no very
decided judgment can be passed upon it.
[Illustration: PLATE 10.]
Another still ruder representation occurs also on another face of the
same rock. This consists of a female figure reclining upon a couch, and
guarded by three male attendants, one at the head of the couch unarmed,
and the remaining two at its foot, seated, and armed with spears. The
female has puffed-out hair, and carries in her right hand, which is
outstretched, a wreath or chaplet. One of the spearmen has a curious
rayed head-dress; and the other has a short streamer attached to
the head of his spear. Below the main tablet are three rudely carved
standing figures, representing probably other attendants.
This set of reliefs may perhaps be best regarded as forming a single
series, the Parthian king being represented as engaged in hunting the
bear, while the queen awaits his return upon her couch, and the chief
Magus attached to the court makes prayer for the monarch’s safety.
Such are the chief remains of Parthian aesthetic art. They convey
an idea of decline below the standard reached by the Persians of the
Achaemenian times, which was itself a decline from the earlier art of
the Assyrians. Had they been the efforts of a race devoid of models,
they might fairly have been regarded as not altogether without promise.
But, considered as the work of a nation which possessed the Achaemenian
sculptures, and which had moreover, to a certain extent, access to Greek
examples, a they must be pronounced clumsy, coarse, and wanting in all
the higher qualities of Fine Art. It is no wonder that they are scanty
and exceptional. The nation which could produce nothing better must have
felt that its vocation was not towards the artistic, and that its powers
had better be employed in other directions, e.g. in conquest and in
organization. It would seem that the Parthians perceived this, and
therefore devoted slight attention to the Fine Arts, preferring to
occupy themselves mainly with those pursuits in which they excelled;
viz. war, hunting, and government.