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PERSIAN MINIATURES 161
It is, in fact, a very pretty piece of illustration ;
it is not a profoundly moving design. Compared
with figure A on Plate I it is tight and
unlovely : compared with the masterpieces of
the thirteenth century it is not even what a
picture by Raphael is to a picture by Giotto ;
if, historically, Behzad is the Raphael of Persia,
aesthetically, he is a very inferior one.
It is in the post-Behzad art, their Sefevaean
art of the sixteenth century, that the Persians
have the advantage of us. The miniatures of
this age were, until lately, reckoned by
European collectors the masterpieces
of Persian
painting, and the decline of their reputation
may be compared with that of those later
cinquecentiste who stood so high in the taste
of the eighteenth century. The descent,
however, has been less sharp as the error was
less
glaring. After Behzad there is no such
tumble as befell Italian art in the last days
of the Renaissance. On the contrary, as my
final illustrations (also drawn from Mr. Ruck's
scrap-book) show, the Persian art of the
sixteenth century maintained a very high
level. The ladder picture (Plate III, D) is,
I presume, by Sultan Mohamed. For my part
I prefer it to the Behzad. It is less mechani-
cal ; and I find in it none of that weary
man who
pomposity, that gesture of the great
knows his business too well, which so often
L