羚羊(ガゼル)文様皿
- イラン西部
- 紀元前8-紀元前7世紀
- 金
- H-3.9 D-22
現在この皿は断片の寄せ集めになってしまっているが、このような状態になったのは山分けするために皿を分割してしまった発見者たちの貪欲のせいである。しかしこのような状態にもかかわらず、中央の円盤部分の7つの同心円から、繊細に造形されたガゼル頭部形の先端部とそれより大きい畝付アーモンド形の先端部とで交互に終わっている放射状装飾に至るまで、その優雅さは明白に見て取れる。その上、この皿を製作するのに使われた技術は大多数の類品よりも際立って特徴的である。盛り上がった同心円は打ち出しによるものではなく、外面の口縁部直下をめぐっている線と同様に、意図的に分厚く作られた中心部を彫り窪めて作られているのである。ガゼルの頭とアーモンド形の物体も打ち出しではなく、細部に至るまで均一な形を手早く作り出すために背後から型にはめ込んで作られている。
Catalogue Entry
This now-fragmentary dish reputedly owes its present state to the greed of the individuals who found it and cut it into chunks to share the value. Nonetheless, its elegance is apparent from the seven concentric rings of its central disk to the fine, raised rays alternately ending in delicately formed gazelle heads and larger, ribbed almond shapes. In addition, the techniques employed to produce the bowl set it apart from most other related examples. The concentric rings were not raised by hammering but, instead, were carved into the intentionally thickened central section-as were the lines that encircle the bowl on its exterior, just below the rim. The gazelle heads and the almond-shaped forms were not raised in repouss either, but were worked from behind into a matrix, in order to quickly create detailed and uniform shapes.
The shallow profile of the dish places it closer to the Phoenician bowls of the ninth and the eighth century B.C. found in the Assyrian palace at Nimrud rather than to the carinated examples of Assyrian production.1 The discovery of a large, elaborate Phoenician bowl in a seventh-century B.C. Elamite tomb in southwestern Iran reveals that these luxurious bronzes reached Iran proper.2 The delicate gazelle heads, depicted, from above, with their symmetrically curving horns, are unusual in Iranian art. This distinctive motif also appears on a fragmentary strip of gold appliqu said to have been found at Ziwiye3-the supposed source of the Shumei dish. Other images of gazelles are seen on an ivory appliqu and on a ceramic rhyton,4 both of which also are reported to have come from the site. Ziwiye is the location of a now-ruined fortress dating to the Iranian Iron Age, where a spectacularly diversified hoard of gold, silver, ivory, and other precious materials was found during clandestine digging in 1947.5 Since that time, many unprovenanced works have been associated with Ziwiye with varying degrees of probability. The Shumei gold dish presents a stronger case than most of these other objects for this claim.
TSK
1. See Curtis and Reade 1995, pp. 134-41, 142.
2. See Majidzadeh 1993.
3. See vanden Berghe 1959, pp. 112-13, pl. 141d.
4. See Godard 1950, p. 90, fig. 79; Culican 1965, p. 121, fig. 30.
5. See Godard 1950, p. 90, fig. 79 ; Muscarella 1977, pp. 184-86.