三葉つぎ帯文杯みつばつぎおびもんはい

  • イラン
  • 紀元前2世紀後半期-紀元前1世紀前半期
  • 鍍金銀、ガーネット
  • H-6.5 D-14

この杯の器壁は丸い底から、少し外反した形の縁に向けて続いている。このどっしりとした器壁から鋳造・鍛造両方を用いて制作されている事が分かる。この円錐形の杯は広く普及したギリシア風の銀器・ガラス器の一群に属すが、それらの出土地は黒海北岸から地中海の東方沿岸に及ぶ広範囲に分布している。

Catalogue Entry

The wall of the conical cup rises from a rounded base to a slightly everted, molded rim. The rather massive walls suggest that the vessel was manufactured both by casting and hammering.1

This conical cup belongs to a group of Hellenistic silver and glass2 with provenances ranging from the northern shore of the Black Sea to the eastern Mediterranean. The trefoil garland of lanceolate foliage bound together in groups of three is a conventional motif of Near Eastern Hellenistic silver, which appeared in different techniques.3 In this case it might more accurately be called a trefoil wreath, because the trefoil groups actually form two branches running in opposite directions bound together by a taenia.

The technique of the trefoil groups and the garnet inlays appear on two hemispherical cups of alleged Near Eastern, perhaps Iranian, provenance in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu.4 As in the case of the Shumei cup, a late Hellenistic date is suggested by their central rosettes of five overlapping leaves. We are obviously dealing with an almost canonical decorative repertoire, which was possibly used by various Hellenized ateliers.

Greek styles reached the formerly Achaemenid Asia in the wake of the campaigns of Alexander the Great. After Alexander's early death in 323 B.C., the Asian territories of his empire were finally reunited under one of his former generals, who founded the Seleucid dynasty (312-64 B.C.). Although entirely based on Greek craftsmanship, this late Hellenistic cup should be primarily seen against a Parthian and not on a Seleucid background. The Parthians or Arsacids were a mostly nomadic people of Central Asian origin who first appeared in the last third of the third century B.C. in provinces close to the southeastern shore of the Caspian Sea. Within the subsequent century they conquered almost all the Iranian and Mesopotamian territories of the Seleucid realm. Notwithstanding this fact, the Arsacid kings loved to proclaim themselves philhellenoi, "friends of the Greeks," on countless issues of their coinage. This cultural preference is corroborated by the entirely Graeco-Hellenistic vessel shape and the Greek decoration of the Shumei cup, which adds another element to our picture of Hellenized craftsmanship in the formerly Seleucid sphere.
MP


1. See the technical note in Metropolitan Museum 1996, pp. 189-90.
2. For the type and its parallels see Pfrommer 1993, pp. 43, 148-51, 228, nos. 22-24, with ills.
3. For trefoils see ibid., pp. 37-39.
4. Ibid., pp. 50, 184-85, nos. 69, 70, with ills.

解説(古代バクトリア遺宝展)

前2世紀後半―前1世紀前半
鍍金銀、ガーネット
高6.5 cm 径14.0 cm
 この円錐形の杯は口縁に浮彫で縄目の枠取りをし、ガーネットの象嵌を施した三葉つぎの帯が巡らされている。三葉つぎの帯は結び目から各々逆方向に巡り、対極で葉の先端を突き合わせる冠型の意匠となっている。器底は中心にガーネットを象嵌した互いに重なり合った五花弁のロゼット文が浮彫されている。この形状の杯はヘレニズム期の銀器、ガラス器に広く見られるものである。半球形あるいは円錐形をしたゴールド・グラスボウルとして知られているものは、しばしば口縁の三葉つぎ帯と器底のロゼット意匠を伴っており、前3世紀頃から地中海域、西アジアまで広い分布を示している。しかしここに見られる花弁が重なり合った五花弁のロゼット文は、特に前1世紀以降の金属器のものである。ヘレニズム時代の金属器には更に繁縟なものも知られているが、このような三葉つぎ帯と五花弁の組み合わせという簡素なものは、ポール・ゲッティー美術館(アメリカ)のイラン由来とされる半球形の杯にその類例を見ることができる。

Catalogue Entry(Bac#031)

Second half of the 2nd‐first half of the 1st century B.C.
Gilded silver, garnet
H. 6.5 cm, Dia. 14.0 cm
This conical cup has relief carving circling its rim, with a rope edge framework and inlaid garnets decorating a band of trefoils. This trefoil band extends in opposite directions from a knotted center, and the tips of the leaves meet at the other end, forming a diadem-type motif. A garnet is inlaid in the center of the base of the bowl and the garnet is set into the overlapping center of a 5 petaled rosette. This shape of cup can be widely seen in both glass and silver vessels of the Hellenistic period. Gold glass cups of either semi-spherical or conical shapes frequently have this trefoil band rim and rosette motif, and can be seen widely distributed from around the 3rd century BC on in the Mediterranean region and west Asia. However the rosette seen here with the overlapping five petals is something particularly found on metal vessels from the 1st century BC onwards. While it then appeared again frequently on the metal ware of the Hellenistic period, a similar type of simple combination of trefoil band and five petal rosette can also be seen a semi-spherical cup said to be from Iran and now in the J. Paul Getty Museum.