The Scene of Bear Hunt on the Sasanian Silver Plate from the Wyvern Collection. On Segmented Image-Building in Sasanian art (original) (raw)
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The Sogdian horseman: visual representation of a hunting scene in pre-modern Central Asia and Iran
Silver dishes from pre-modern Near East are not unique. Yet, their iconography is sometimes puzzling and may be easily misinterpreted. In this paper, I analyze the reasons for such misinterpretation drawing upon western art historian methodologies and Russian theories of iconology and suggest a probabilistic approach to deconstruction, interpretation and attribution of the elements of the image to a particular style, period, and place. The silver dish to which this analysis is applied came from the crossroads of Near Eastern cultures and represents a hunting scene. I suggest that unlike in mathematics, the simplest explanation is not always the best. The analysis of an art object should take into consideration the long and arduous road leading to its inception: the multitude of the external influences exerted on the creator, and the observer, of the art piece and their corresponding context.
Scene of Fighting Tigers on a Sasanian Plate from Mes ‘Aynak. Notes on the Composition
Acta Archaeologica Lodziensia 66, 2020
The article discusses, from formal perspective, the mounted hunting scene on the Kushano-Sasanian silver plate found in Mes Aynak in Afghanistan. The scene represents the model related to other Sasanian silverware, however with significant variances. When compared the scene to other models defined by Author, conclusion is made that except for several “canonical” layouts, Sasanian toreuts, allowed themselves a dose of freedom in combining them. This phenomenon seems to be related to peripheries of the Sasanian Empire and model of a sword-wielding rider in combat with large felines while holding an object in outstretched left hand was defined as originating from Kushanshahr and combining Assyrian and Achaemenid formulae of men killing beasts with mounted archer/lancer layouts popular in Sasanian silver.
2019
Recently published silver plate from al-Ṣabāḥ Collection, of unknown provenance, has been firmly attributed as Sasanian. In fact, technically, it is related to the Sasanian silverwork however aesthetic examination allows to raise the doubts whether it is genuine. The plate must be compared not only with central-Sasanian artworks but all ancient ‘Oriental silver’, including pieces attributed as Hephtalite or Sogdian. The design of the plate does not have any relation with any of the known examples of late antique oriental toreutics. Central scene of heroic combat with powerful beast or beasts has never been surrounded with the ring containing other hunting scenes is unknown as well. The disbalanced decorum is even more clear when we remind that the central scene shows hunting on foot and the marginal ones – mounted. The details of fixed aesthetic elements – position of personages, beasts, weapons do not belong to Sasanian canon. The unique nature of the plate might result from many factors but the combination of unknown provenance and lack of relation to legitimate Sasanian canon require utmost cautiousness towards the object.
Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia, 2014
This article is devoted to the publication and analysis of a previously unpublished artefact – a gold plate with a depiction of a recumbent wild boar held in the Museum of the Historical Treasures of the Ukraine. On the basis of a visual examination, the authors have interpreted the article as the facing of a Scythian ritual wooden vessel. On the basis of an iconographic analysis of the depiction of the wild boar, they have dated it to the 5th centurybc, possibly to its second quarter. The depiction is discussed in relation to other depictions of a wild boar in Scythian art and an attempt is made to piece together the process of how the motif of a recumbent boar appeared in the Scythian Animal Style of Eastern Europe. Together with its close parallels, the authors attribute this depiction to the “Aleksandrovka – Arkhangel’skaya Sloboda” stylistic type for the depiction of recumbent boars dated to the period from the late 6th to the early 4th centurybc. The authors also attempt to pi...
This article provides an examination of archery techniques, such as drawing techniques of the bowstring, the method of grasping the bow grip and placing the arrow, and their relationship to warfare as depicted on 22 Sassanian and early post-Sassanian silver plates. These plates provide useful information on Sassanian archery equipment and techniques. These plates can be categorized into the following categories: (a) foot archery, (b) horse archery, c) dromedary archery and (d) elephant archery. All plates examined in this study depicting these categories are in a hunting milieu. The largest proportion of plates pertain to horse archery which in turn can be classified into four combat subsets: forward-facing horse archery, the backward-firing Parthian shot, horse archery with stirrups, and horse archery while appearing to ride backwards.
Depictions of archery in Sassanian silver plates and their relationship to warfare, 2018
This article provides an examination of archery techniques, such as drawing techniques of the bowstring, the method of grasping the bow grip and placing the arrow, and their relationship to warfare as depicted on 22 Sassanian and early post-Sassanian silver plates. These plates provide useful information on Sassanian archery equipment and techniques. These plates can be categorized into the following categories: (a) foot archery, (b) horse archery, c) dromedary archery and (d) elephant archery. All plates examined in this study depicting these categories are in a hunting milieu. The largest proportion of plates pertain to horse archery which in turn can be classified into four combat subsets: forward-facing horse archery, the backward-firing Parthian shot, horse archery with stirrups, and horse archery while appearing to ride backwards.