J. Strzygowski. Mschatta (Jahrbuch der preussischen Kunstsammlungen, 1904, Heft IV).

          In his brilliant monograph of Mshatta, Professor Strzygowski develops the theme on which he bas been working for the past fifteen years. His studies have led him to seek in the great cities of the Levant the sources from which the early Christian art of Europe was derived. In the present book he is engaged in working out the historic sequence of artistic developement [sic] and in tracing yet further east the non-Hellenic elements which characterise the arts of Syria, of Egypt, of Asia Minor, and eventually of Byzantium, Islam and the West. In the flux and reflux of civilizations, Seleucia has been fixed upon as the crucible into which East and West alike threw their gold, the fertile mint from which a coinage of artistic forms and conceptions flowed to the furthest limits of Asia and of Europe. In more senses than the geographical, Mshatta stands midway between the earliest Mesopotamian cradle of the arts and the influence of the classic world which followed Alexander eastward. It inherits through the Sassanians from Babylon and from Nineveh, and through the Hellenism of Antioch and Palmyra from Greece. In such a study Byzantium plays no part and where the character of ornament and workmanship coincide, it is because Mshatta and Constantinople drew their inspiration from the same oriental source. Professor Strzygowski rejects the theory of a Byzantine architect for Mshatta. The name of the builder, says be, deserves to rank with that of Anthemius of Tralles or Isidorus of Miletus ; but his birthplace must have lain not in Asia Minor, but in Persia or Mesopotamia.

          The double influence, oriental and occidental, is clearly visible in the treatment of the exquisite frieze adorning the façade of Mshatta, part of which has recently been removed to Berlin. The bold pattern of zigzag and rosette is worked out after the antique manner in light and shadow. The full value of it can be known only to those who have been fortunate enough to see it under the strong light of a southern sun. But the zigzag is in itself a motive characteristically Persian and the delicate carving of the background is treated in a way that recalls the coloured brick façades of Mesopotamia or the elaborate decorations of the oriental carpet. Light and dark take the place of colour and they are used to produce the exact effect that colour would have given ; light and shadow are entirely neglected. Professor Strzygowski describes the façade in the minutest detail, this portion of the book being a valuable study of the history of ornament, enriched with such wealth of illustration and example as the vast stores of the author’s knowledge lay at his disposal. The acanthus, the palmette, the vine pattern, the rosette, the pine cone, the double wing, and many more — for Mshatta is extraordinarily rich in decorative motives — are traced through a long series of varied forms and uses, and almost all are traced back to an oriental source. The history of the vine pattern is handled with peculiar mastery and its development followed into the arts of China and of India and into the geometric ornament of Islam. No less interesting are the conclusions drawn from the constructive principles of Mshatta. The argument is begun in a short preface by Bruno Schultz, in which he points out the oriental character of arch and vault. Professor Strzygowski confirms this view and deduces from it that the brick architecture of Mshatta, which he shows to have no technical connection with that of Antioch and Byzantium, must be derived from Persia and not from Rome. The agglomeration of small vaulted groups of rooms has affinities with the East and not with the West, where the principle of constructive unity is always predominant. The two archaeologists differ, however, as to the original purpose of the building. Schultz believes it to have been fortified quarters for troops, Strzygowski is persuaded that it was a palace. The outer enclosure of walls resembles, indeed, the Roman camps of Syria and the Syrian desert, but the disposal of the inner court, leading to a columned hall which is closed by a triple apse, seems to him to point to its having been intended for the reception and throne room of an oriental king. He believes it to be closely similar in plan to the palace of Solomon, and just as Diocletian’s palace at Spalato may be regarded as an offshoot of Antioch, so may the ground plan of Mshatta be traced to that of the palace at Jerusalem. He points out that is it fundamentally the same as the plan of Constantine’s church al Bethlehem and suggests that this was no more than an adaptation of profane architecture to ecclesiastical purposes.

          The date of Mshatta bas been placed about the year 627, chiefly because the convex capital which is found in the columned hall is not known in Byzantine architecture before the time of Justinian. But in breaking the assumed connection between Mshatta and Constantinople, Strzygowski’s argument sweeps away this line of reasoning. He dates the building at some period between the fourth and the sixth centuries, himself leaning, we gather, towards the earlier of the two. He refuses, moreover, to credit the theory of its Sassanian origin and suggests that it may have been built by the Ghassanid kings, to whom are attributed a network of castles, of varying epochs, in Moab close to Mshatta itself. He is certain that the decoration of the façade is not pure Persian, but related to the architecture of Northern Mesopotamia, of Edessa, Amida and Nisibis — a national Persian art showing strong western influences.

          A word in conclusion. It would be presumptuous in the foreigner to criticise Professor Strzygowski’s style, but the student may be permitted to complain of the arrangement of the book. Tbe difficulty of grasping a subject which is already exceedingly complex is materially increased by the lack of order in dealing with it and the reader finds himself awaiting with apprehension the almost inevitable phrase « davon gleich mehr », which breaks the current of the argument and relegates the matter in hand to some distant page.

                                       G[ertrude] L[owthian] B[ell]

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