Persepolis: a review

Extract

This magnificent and monumental volume must be ranked amongst the trophies which Iran seems to engender for the bibliophile. That is chiefly due to the sumptuous and extensive architecture and sculpture to which justice can only be done by lavish illustration and panorama. Many of the half-tone plates are triumphs of photography which by skilful use of chiaroscuro bring into bold relief the mastery of the ancient stone-cutter over his material, his sense of space and proportion, his unending battle with the rock. Occasionally there is a photograph which has been better done in Arthur Upham Pope's Survey of Persian Art, notably for example the extraordinary quasi-Egyptian figure with the triple crown at Pasargadae, symbol perhaps of Cyrus's triumph over Syria; but en masse the views are glorious, be they reliefs, buildings or photographs taken from the air. It should be added that the anonymous architectural line drawings are also worthy of the book's distinguished format.