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Of Median art nothing remains. The Persians left the record, but it
was not wholly of their own invention, nor was it very extensive or
brilliant. It had little originality about it, and was really only an
echo of Assyria. The sculptors and painters copied their Assyrian
predecessors, repeating at Persepolis what had been better told at
Nineveh.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--LIONS' FRIEZE, SUSA. (FROM PERROT AND CHIPIEZ.)]
TYPES AND TECHNIC: The same subjects, types, and technical methods in
bas-relief, tile, and painting on plaster were followed under Darius
as under Shalmanezer. But the imitation was not so good as the
original. The warrior, the winged monsters, the animals all lost
something of their air of brutal defiance and their strength of
modelling. Heroes still walked in procession along the bas-reliefs and
glazed tiles, but the figure was smaller, more effeminate, the hair
and beard were not so long, the drapery fell in slightly indicated
folds at times, and there was a profusion of ornamental detail.


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