Antiquities Exhibits

Winged male figures that are distinct from Hermes appear quite frequently in Attic art of the mid-sixth century B.C.E. Without inscriptions they are difficult to identify. In all of Greek art, the distinction between the human and the divine, the tangible and intangible, is elusive. Although we do not know all of their names, these figures surely move between various orders of reality.  - Metropolitan Museum of Art Besides Hermes, one of the best known of these winged deities is Morpheus, the son of sleep and associated with sleep and dreams.   In Ovid's Metamorphoses, he is one of the thousand sons of Somnus and he appears in dreams in human form.   According to Ovid "no other is more skilled than he in representing the gait, the features, and the speech of men. The clothing also and the accustomed words of each he represents." Ovid gives names to two more of these sons of Sleep. One called Icelos ('Like'), by the gods, but Phobetor ('Frightener') by men,...

While I was researching the Cypriot ear spirals yesterday, I noticed this bronze bust of a priest with silver inlaid eyes dated from the 3rd - 4th century CE at the Miho Museum.  The museum identified it as late Roman but the museum's image had been shared on Flickr and I noticed that someone with the username eternal persia commented on the piece and insisted it was Sasanian.  He/she pointed to the monogram on the hat, clothes, hair design and leaves that decorate the bust and insisted these are Sasanian elements. Intrigued, I researched the item a little further.  At first, most Sasanian portrait sculptures I reviewed were all bearded.  Then I saw an image of a relief depicting Kartir, a high priest and vizier serving during the reigns of Shapur I, Hormizd I, Bahram I, and Bahram II. Not only is Kartir clean shaven, he sports the corkscrew curls and crested hat worn by the priest of the bust at the Miho Museum. Some scholars think Kartir may have been a eunuch, due...

Sasanian silver plates were usually hammered into shape and then decorated using a variety of complex techniques.  Gilding was often used to highlight the hunter, usually the king, and sometimes extra pieces of metal were added to create high relief. The king as hunter became a standard image on silver plates during the reign of Shapur II (r. 310–379 CE). The motif symbolizes the prowess of Sasanian rulers, and these royal plates were often sent as gifts to neighboring and vassal courts.  Some plates included inscriptions with the king's name and the plate's weight.  With other plates, art historians must attempt to identify the king by his distinctive apparel or shape of the crown he wears.  Each Sasanian king wore a different personal crown, which became more and more elaborate during the four centuries of the dynasty. Fortunately, the different crowns have been identified from coins or sometimes compared with existing rock reliefs with inscriptions such as those a...

When Ardashir I (r. 224-241 CE) founded the Sasanian Empire, he created a  standing army which was under his personal command and whose officers were separate from satraps, local princes and nobility. He restored the Achaemenid military organizations, retained the Parthian cavalry model, and employed new types of armor and siege warfare techniques.  Organizationally, the Shahanshah (the King of Kings) served as the head of the military and there were four military commanders under his authority. Initially, the offices of the Great King of Armenia, King of Meshan, King of Gilan, and King of Sakastan fulfilled these roles. After the reforms of Khosrow I, there were four spahbeds (Army Commanders), each for a cardinal direction. In the character of their warfare, the Persians of the Sasanian period differed greatly, though, from their forebears under the Achaemenid kings. The war chariot was no longer used, the  elephant corps was advanced to a very prominent and important p...

The Roman emperor Galerius commissioned the triple Arch of Galerius, built in 298-299 CE and dedicated in 303 CE,  as an element of the imperial precinct linked to his palace in Thessaloniki, Greece. Galerius served as Caesar during the tetrarchy of Diocletian and married Diocletian's daughter.  Entrusted with the care of the Illyrian provinces, he campaigned against Sarmatians and Goths along the Danube then was  dispatched to Egypt to fight the rebellious cities Busiris and Coptos. From there, Galerius was sent to command the eastern forces between Carrhae and Callinicum in Syria. Then, in about 295 CE, Narseh, son of the king Shapur I and the seventh emperor of the Sassanid Persian Empire, declared war on Rome and invaded western Armenia. Narseh then moved south into Roman Mesopotamia, where he inflicted a severe defeat on Galerius. Diocletian may or may not have been present at the battle, but presented himself soon afterwards at Antioch, where the official version of...

Epic by name and epic by nature, this exhibition will cover an ambitious 5,000 years of Iranian history through 350 objects. Starting in 3,200BCE, the show will first explore the varied landscape of Iran before moving on to early Persian civilisations, the Persian Empire, and later Sassanid rule and Zoroastrianism. Split into ten, fairly chronological sections, it will have an “immersive design” that apparently sets it in a city, complete with a gatehouse, gardens, a palace and a library. The show will include works borrowed from collections in the US, Russia, France, Belgium and the UK. Image: An incense-burner in the shape of a lion (1000-1100 CE) is on show in the "Literary Excellence" section, demonstrating how texts decorated objects Photo: © Musee du Louvre Read more about it: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/epic-iran-preview

Silver Sasanian Horse-Shaped Drinking Vessel 200-325 CE at the Cleveland Art Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. The horse was a favorite artistic subject in ancient Iran, where horsebreeding flourished. This muscular Sasanian stallion was descended from the royal and sacred Nisean breed of the Achaemenian Persians. Although now extinct, Nisean horses were highly sought after in the ancient world. The ancient Greeks called him the Nis ean after the town Nisa, where he was bred but the Chinese called him the Tien Ma – Heavenly Horse or Soulon-Vegetarian dragon. The horse came in a variety of colors including the more common dark bay, chesnut and seal brown but also the more rare black, roan, palomino, and various spotted patterns. The royal Nisean was the mount of the nobility in ancient Persia. Two gray Nisean stallions pulled the King of Kings’ royal chariot, while four of the regal animals pulled the chariot of Ahura Mazda, the supreme god of Persia and Medea. Cyrus the Great was so distr...

Ancient Iran: a glimpse of Persian art and architecture under the Sassanids.  The Sassanid dynasty of ancient Persia was established in 224 CE when Ardashir I overthrew the Parthian empire.  Sassanid monuments in such cities as Ardashir Khurreh and Bishapur incorporate domes and squinches, or arched openings, in four sides of a square structure.  This architectural form, used extensively in religious architecture after the adoption of Zoroastrianism as the state religion, was continued during the subsequent Islamic era. It was also used in the grandiose palaces at Ctesiphon, Firuzabd, and Sarvestan.  It was during this period that the bas-reliefs on limestone cliffs, including  Bishapur, Naqsh-e Rostam and Naqsh-e Rajab in southern Iran were created.  In 2018, UNESCO added an ensemble of Sassanian historical cities in southern Iran, entitled “Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars Region”, to its World Heritage list.  The Sassanids also practiced h...

Achaemanid and Sassanian era art ongoing at the Azarbaijan Museum in Tabriz, Iran. The Azarbaijan Museum in northwestern Iran houses archaeological collections dating back to the 5th millennium BCE through the Achaemenid and Sassanian dynasties in its first two galleries as well as a library with three thousands volumes. Items include religious and funerary monuments and inscriptions, rhytons, human remains, ceramics, weights,  jewelry, glassware, coins, and seals. For those also interested in more modern art, the museum displays Iranian artist Ahad Hosseini's twelve sculptures, "Misery Around the World" in its third gallery. Image: Sassanid era (221 -651 CE) gilded silver plate, Azerbaijan Museum , Tabriz , Iran courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Alborz Fallah. The Sassanids were one of Rome's most formidable opponents. For those of you unable to travel to Iran, the Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. has a number of outstanding s...