Description:
A - somewhat enigmatic - bronze object from ancient Iran with a magnificent and extremely rare engraved decoration. It is a thin plaque with concave upper and lower edges and convex side edges, a form which has been described in the publications as a double ax. On the right hand side are two holes with a loop made of twisted wire, and on the left hand side seven holes, somewhat irregularly positioned. The plaque is bordered with a continuous framed double triangle pattern within double lines, which were incised before the holes were made.
The piece has two panels, separated by a complex but regular design consisting of double lozenges with projecting rays, framed by a double tongue pattern, itself framed by hatched vertical bands and then circles.
In the right panel we see a bearded archer, kneeling to shoot an arrow with his bow. He is barefoot and wears a kilt and a short sleeved jacket. He has a dagger in his belt, with a tassle projecting; of a quiver on his back only the top end is visible behind his head. A row of circles runs along the inside of the right border, starting at the feet of the archer and extending along the top, ending at his head.
In the left panel a goat is fleeing to the left. The animal turns its head back to look over its shoulder towards the archer. The goat has just been struck by an arrow. In this panel there is no row of decorating circles. For a comparable scene on a bronze situla see Moorey (1974), p. 152, no. 134.
Only a few dozen similar plaques are known, all with (a sometimes varying number of) holes at the side edges; also the scene, the border and central division can be different. These plaques have been studied and discussed by Calmeyer (1964, p 28ff.; 1973, p. 109ff.), Moorey (1971, p. 258f.) and Muscarella (1988, p. 242-243, no. 341, who also describes our plaque). They all have a similar shape and technique; their decoration is also comparable, with four basic scenes: a bull and lion facing each other (the most common scene); confronting bulls; multi-petaled rosettes; and our scene of a fleeing goat and an archer.
Of our scene only very few examples are known; Muscarella lists only three, including our plaque. He states that the piece in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is identical to our piece in every detail - only the number of holes on the right hand side is different, and the loop is missing; he comes to the conclusion that our plaque and the one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art were very probably made in the same workshop. Additional observations and remarks were later made by Florkin, who wrote a comprehensive and detailed report about the object when it was in his collection.
The function of these plaques is still unknown; they were tied by the loops to some other object, and they may have been used in pairs, but nothing else is known (Muscarella (1988), p. 243). Florkin discusses several suggestions for its use, such as the buckle of a belt, an element for closing a garment or a bracer (a wristguard).
Also unknown is where the plaque was made. None of the pieces known come from an archaeological context, but all were sold by dealers as coming from Iran. Calmeyer (1964, p. 28ff.; 1973, p. 109) believes that all come from one site near Kermanshah, Kizil Kuh; the publications of our piece, when still in the Barbier collection, state that it is from Luristan. Muscarella (1988, p. 243) believes that the plaques indeed derive from some region in western Iran, because both the types of pictorial scenes depicted and their style of execution are remarkably similar to those depicted on decorated bronze nipple beakers, which almost certainly derive from western Iran.
Based on the chronology of the nipple beakers, Calmeyer (1964, p. 28) dated the plaques between the 12th and 9th centuries B.C., and Moorey (1971, p. 258) originally dated them to the 11th-10th centuries B.C. if not slightly later. Later both scholars and Muscarella dated the beakers to the 10th-9th centuries B.C., and a similar dating is likely for the plaques. However, the fact that on some of them iron loops and plates are present might indicate a 9th-century B.C. date as the earliest time within which the plaques could have been created (Muscarella (1988), p. 243).
Bibliography:
Peter Calmeyer, Altiranische Bronzen der Sammlung Bröckelschen (Berlin, Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, 1964);
Peter Calmeyer, Reliefbronzen in babylonischem Stil. Eine westiranische Werkstatt des 10. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. (Abhandlungen, Neue Folge, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Heft 73) (München, Verlag der Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1973);
J. Florkin, Plaque ceintrée en bronze du Luristan en forme de double hache gravée d'une scène de chasse (undated);
P.R.S. Moorey, Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Adam Collection (London, Faber & Faber, 1974);
P.R.S. Moorey, Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971);
Oscar White Muscarella, Bronze and Iron. Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988).
Exhibited:
Genève, Musée Rath, Musée d'art et d'histoire, 8 juin - 25 septembre 1966.
Published:
* Marie-Louise Vollenweider - Françoise Brüschweiler - Rolf A. Stucky (eds.), Trésors de l'ancien Iran. Catalogue de l'exposition, Genève, Musée Rath, 8 juin - 25 septembre 1966 (Genève, Musée Rath, Musée d'art et d'histoire, 1966), p. 64, no. 50;
* Bronzes iraniens, IIe et Ier millénaires avant J.-C. - Collection Jean Paul Barbier, Genève (Genève, 1970), p. 10-11, no. 26; p. 49, fig. 26.
Dating:
Western Iran, perhaps Luristan, circa 9th century B.C.
Size:
Length 13.3 cm without the loop.
Provenance:
Collection of Jean Paul Barbier, Genève (prior to 1966); thence with Michel Koenig (1944-2014), Brussels/Liège; thence private collection of Jacques Florkin, acquired from the above on 19 March 1990 (no. 82); thence private collection P.C. (Liège, Belgium), no. 206, thence Dominique Thirion Ancient Art, Brussels.
The Swiss collector Jean Paul Barbier (1930-2016) was the founder of the Musée Barbier-Mueller in Geneva, together with his wife Monique, the daughter of Josef Mueller (1887-1977), one of the greatest art collectors of all time.
Condition:
Overall in a very good condition; an ancient fold and two cracks, otherwise very well preserved; with a thick brown-green patina. Extremely rare!
SOLD
Stock number:
A1334