Object Details
- Description
- Bowl, shallow, silver on low ring foot, with a Bacchanalian triumphal scene in flat relief against a gilded background. Chased, engraved, and gilded.
- Label
- This complex scene, which decorates the interior of a shallow plate, testifies to the lively cultural interaction that took place between the eastern Mediterranean and Central Asia in the first millennium. In the center, the Greek god Dionysos (depicted here with female-like breasts) sits nexts to the princess Ariadne; to the right stands the hero Herakles. The plate depicts the triumphal arrival of the Greek god Dionysos in India. A popular subject of Roman imperial art, it was later depicted over a wide area of the Byzantine Empire in textiles, gemstones, and metalwork, and transferred through such portable media to neighboring Sasanian Iran.
- Provenance
- To 1964
- Mahboubian Gallery of Ancient Art, Tehran, Iran and New York. [1]
- From 1964
- Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Mahboubian Gallery of Ancient Art, Tehran, Iran and New York. [2]
- Notes:
- [1] Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List file after 1920, Collections Management Office.
- [2] See note 1.
- Collection
- Freer Gallery of Art Collection
- Exhibition History
- Feast Your Eyes: A Taste for Luxury in Ancient Iran (February 4, 2012 - ongoing)
- Ancient Art of the Near East (November 21, 2009 to December 1, 2011)
- Luxury Arts of the Silk Route Empires (May 9, 1993 to January 28, 2007)
- Ancient Near Eastern Metalware (December 18, 1984 to February 24, 1986)
- Pre-Islamic Metalwork from the Near East (April 15, 1983 to April 4, 1984)
- Art of the Near East (August 21, 1977 to December 14, 1979)
- Near Eastern Art (June 15, 1973 to May 7, 1975)
- 2500 Years of Persian Art—Paintings, Metalwork (February 10, 1972 to June 15, 1973)
- Near Eastern Art—Paintings, Metalwork (August 18, 1967 to February 10, 1972)
- Near Eastern Art (January 1, 1963 to August 18, 1967)
- Previous custodian or owner
- Mahboubian Gallery of Ancient Art
- Credit Line
- Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
- 5th-7th century
- Period
- Sasanian period
- Accession Number
- F1964.10
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Vessel
- Medium
- Silver and gilt
- Dimensions
- H x Diam (overall): 4.5 × 22.1 cm (1 3/4 × 8 11/16 in)
- Origin
- Iran
- On View
- Sackler Gallery 21: Feast Your Eyes: A Taste for Luxury in Ancient Iran
- Related Online Resources
- Google Cultural Institute
- See more items in
- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
- Topic
- gilding
- chasing
- hammering
- carving
- engraving (incising)
- metal
- silver
- Sasanian period (ca. 224 - 651)
- Iran
- Ancient Near Eastern Art
- Record ID
- fsg_F1964.10
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ye3fb623bd3-cf05-4560-b688-381c4dbf7ffe
