Silver Gilt Plate with Sassanid King defeating a Catafract, Azerbaijan Museum

[Druzhina]

It was suggested that I add this Silver Gilt Plate with Sassanid King defeating a Catafract, Azerbaijan Museum, Tabriz, Iran to my collection of Plates with figures from Persia and Central Asia (and bowls, cups, cameos, plaques, paintings and textiles with similar iconography).

This is the subject of Skupniewicz P. N. TABRIZ MUSEUM BATTLE DISH. FORMAL CONSIDERATIONS
From the conclusion: "Most likely the plate was manufactured in late 1920s or 1930s in the time when Iranian national awareness received influence from the modern archaeological research."

Here are some images of the figures in the paper:
Fig. 4. Sassanid Rock Relief at Firusbad (Firuzabad, Firouzabad), Fars, Iran
Fig. 7. A Sasanian Cameo of Shapur I vanquishing Emperor Valerian, 260 AD, Cabinet des Médailles, Paris
Fig. 9. Nizhniaia Shakharovskaia plate, Shapur III, Sogdian, 7th century AD, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
Fig. 10. Hormizd plate, A Sasanian King Hunting Lions, 5th-6th Century, The Cleveland Museum of Art 1962.150
Fig. 13. Kerchevoe plate, A Sasanian King Hunting Boar, 390-420s CE, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
Fig. 17. Sasanian Plate with King Astride a Fallow Deer, 4th century AD, British Museum 124091
Fig. 18. Novo-Bayazet plate, A Sasanian King Hunting a Boar, a Bear, and a Lion, 7th Century AD, Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin

The catafract on the Azerbaijan Museum Plate may be based on the Parthian catafract on the Sassanid Rock Relief at Firuzabad

Druzhina
Ancient Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice one D

[Techno]

There are some splendid ones amongst those !

I know the cameo has the date 260 AD.....But it wasn't actually made around then, was it, D ?
Gorgeous bit of 'art'.

Cheers - Phil

[Druzhina]

There are some splendid ones amongst those !

I know the cameo has the date 260 AD.....But it wasn't actually made around then, was it, D ?
Gorgeous bit of 'art'.

Cheers - Phil

I can only say that a date of Création / Exécution : 260 is given by the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

[Techno]

Stroll on !
Thanks, D.
It's just that the execution of the piece seems (to my ignorant eye) so sophisticated for something that early/old.

Cheers - Phil

[FierceKitty]

I can only say that a date of Création / Exécution : 260 is given by the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

The day I trust a French attribution of anything will be the date that the ghost of Kenneth Clark can come and carry me off to Hell.

[Ithoriel]

Stroll on !
Thanks, D.
It's just that the execution of the piece seems (to my ignorant eye) so sophisticated for something that early/old.

Cheers - Phil

Cameo carving seems to have originated with the Greeks and by 260AD had been around for five or six hundred years, at least. Plenty of time for artists to get good at it!