Gothic Architecture and Persian Origins - Kaveh Farrokh

Letters
others (PLATE B) are very close to some of the
ribbed vaults in Cordova and Toledo which have
been published by Professor Lambert of Caen.
Others have almost identical counterparts in Scandinavia,
such as in the church of St. Nicolai in
Visby 4 while still others of the Isfahan vaults are
closely paralleled by a vault in the Eglise at Sarlat
in the Dordogne. Examples could be multiplied.
As for dome construction, I think that Mr. Briggs
has accepted too readily the universal theory of the
essential difference between Persian and Byzantine
dome construction. Although
not so critical for its
bearings on Gothic, it is a matter of great intrinsic
interest. Byzantium employed the pendentive
perhaps exclusively, having received it from Syria,
which is generally credited with its discovery, since
the earliest examples are found there, while Persia,
on the contrary, is thought to have confined itself
strictly to the use of the squinch. But, as a matter
of fact, Persia has employed the pendentive from
the earliest Islamic times at least. They are to be
found in the little domes of Tari(kh)
Khaneh and
in all the huge seventeenth-century domes of
Isfahan. The fact that only a very few examples
can be cited for Syria show that it was never
thoroughly accepted there and may even be held to
indicate that it was an imported form. The fact that
4 Cf. J. Roosval: " Westfilisch-gotliindische Beziehungen
in der Architecture des 13. Jahrhunderts," 1928.
THE LITERATURE OF ART
THE MONUMENTS OF BASEL. BY CAMPBELL
DODGSON.
Die Kunstdenkmiiler des Kantons Basel-Stadt. By C. H. Baer
and others. Vol. I. 709 pp. fully illustrated. Basel.
(E. Birkhdiuser and Cie). Sub.; Price Frs. 66.
As part of the series " Die Kunstdenkmailer der
Schweiz," the first of two volumes devoted to the
monuments and works of art of the town of Basel,
itself a canton, has recently appeared. A substantial
volume, profusely illustrated (40 plates, 478
text illustrations), it is the work of numerous
authors under the general editorship of C. H. Baer.
Well planned, detailed, exact and concise, but with
the main sections, between the documents, readable
and expressed in good literary form, it is a model
of what such an archaeological and topographical
record should be.
A geographical and statistical account of Basel
leads to a statement of the traces left by prehistoric,
Roman and Frankish times, followed by the history
of Basel under the bishops, and since its union with
the Swiss Confederation, and an account of its coinage
and of its topography, with full details of such
early views as are extant. Then the surviving monu-
ments of architectural and historical interest are
accurately described: the city walls, the gates, the
Rhine bridge, and the works of sculpture attached
to them. The largest section in the book (pp. 337-
646) is devoted to the Rathaus. The history of its
architecture is contributed by C. H. Baer, and a full
account of the two series of glass paintings (in large
part still extant) which adorned the " Stube des
kleinen Rats " and the " Vordere Ratstube " respectively
is given by Fritz Gysin, The twelve arms of
294
it has been continuously employed for more than a
thousand years in Persia, in buildings large and
small, and in every part of the country, creates some-
thing of a presumption that it might have originated
there.
As a matter of detail, it ought perhaps to be noted
that the Masjid-i Jami in Ardistan is dated Ir33-4
and that the date of the Masjid-i Jume)h of Gulpaigan,
obviously a Seljuk monument, is not yet deciphered.
The attribution to the " end of the tenth century "
was based upon an erroneous reading of the name of
the builder.
Yours faithfully,
ARTHUR UPHAM POPE
THOMAS HEAPHY
SIR,-The Royal Society of British Artists' Art
Club is preparing to publish a monograph by Mr.
William T. Whitley on " Thomas Heaphy; First
President of the Society of British Artists."
May I crave the hospitality of your columns to
invite the curators of galleries and private collectors
to let me have particulars of any works by this artist
they may have in their possession, or of the whereabouts
of which they know, with a view to making
the monograph as complete as possible?
Yours faithfully,
HESKETH HUBBARD
President
the Cantons still preserved, the work of Anthoni
Glaser, dating from about 1520, are reproduced and
exactly described, with mention of every restoration
and of all the documents relating to their history.
This chapter is a model of exactitude and clear
presentation.
But probably most readers of this magazine would
find the next chapter, by Rudolf Riggenbach, on the
wall-paintings of the Rathaus, more interesting than
any other portion of the book. The remains and
history of the pre-Holbein wall-paintings, by Hans
Dyg (repeatedly repainted) and others are first disposed
of. Then we read everything that is known
of Holbein's paintings in the hall of the Great
Council, carried out chiefly in 1521-22, while the
last wall was left till 1530, when it was painted from
two designs, one of which (The Wrath of Rehoboam)
is believed to date from about 1523-24, the other
(Samuel meeting Saul) being newly drawn in the
year I530. The three extant original drawings
(these two and the early Valerian and Sapor), the
numerous copies of lost drawings, the few surviving
fragments of the paintings themselves, and the
copies, by Hess and others, are so, presented, with
all the documents and early comments, including
one attributed to Holbein himself, on the works when
executed, as to give in combination what appears to
be a complete and faultless record (save for a few
trifling misprints) of this important, but almost
perished work by Holbein. The reconstruction of
the original appearance of the much-altered room,
a matter of considerable difficulty, has been effected,
after much preliminary work by Professor H. A.