Luristan Bronzes in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Author(s): J. M. Munn-Rankin
Source: Iraq, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Spring, 1967), pp. 1-2
Published by: British Institute for the Study of Iraq
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4199816 .
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 I

LURISTAN BRONZES IN THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM,

CAMBRIDGE
ByJ. M. MUNN-RANKIN
W in 1931, Professor Sidney Smith reported on a Luristan bronze in
HEN
the British Museum such objects were comparativelyrare.' Since then,
however, they have entered public and private collections in large numbers.
This group in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, is published by kind
permission of the Syndics of the Museum.
The cast bronze standardsand harness ring (Plate I) are fine examples of
well attested types. While the decoration of the harness ring (b)2 with a
mouflon head and two crouching felines is conventional, the modelling of the
animalsand the composition of the design are exceptionallygood. An unusual
feature is that the horn tips, which are seized in the animals' jaws, join the
ring so that the trilobateform of the object is clearly defined.3 Most effective
also, is the contrast between the smooth surfaces of the bodies and the ring
and the ribbing of horns, paws and triple girdles.
The larger standard(I, a)4 depicts the popular motive of the hero between
two felines. Whereas on some exampleshe holds the beast in his outstretched
arms, he is here abbreviatedto a head with strongly defined facial features,
single side curls and long beard. The top of his head has a spray-likedesign
and may representa cap. Its point, together with the animals' snouts, form
the aperturefor the rod which originally transfixedthe standardto its base.
The felines' paws grasping the hero's chin, and also their forelegs, have the
horizontal ribbing of his beard of which, in consequence, they appearat first
glance to form part. The shoulder muscles of the animals have the shape of
a bird's head with curved beak, probably the griffin which occurs on other
standardsas a detachedhead.5 The circle of the bird's eye is repeatedon each
of the haunches, a device which effectively gives unity and balance to the
whole composition. Without it the heavily decoratedupper half would over-
weigh the lower. There is a similarcircle on the rump of each animal.
The smaller standard(Plate I, c)6 representstwo opposed felines grasping
the ring which would have held the central rod. It is unusual in that the
animals' heads seize the ring instead of rising above it to meet on the rod.7
I S. Smith,"Rein Ring from Luristan",B.M.Q. 6, 32 f. ' Museum no. E.44.1946. H. IOO mm.
2 Museumno. E.3. I96I. H. 8i mm. 6 E.g. A. Godard, op. cit. pl. LIII.
3 For a similar arrangement cf. A. Godard, I-es
6 Museum no. E.4.196i. H. 79 mm.
BronZexdu Luristan, pl. XXI, no. I IO, but in this case
the felines are modelled on the ring, not detached ' Cf. A. U. Pope, A Surveyof Persian Art, P1. 44,
from it. A,B,D.

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2 J. M. MUNN-RANKIN

Furthermore,instead of being plain, as is customary,the ring has the form of

a palmette, suggesting an assimilationwith the motive of animals flanking a
sacredtree. The associationof felines instead of horned animalswith the tree
is rare but is paralleledby a bronze pin-headof Luristantype.8
The bronze drinking goblet or so-called situla9(Plate II) belongs to a homo-
geneous group of vessels which shew Assyrian influence in their figurative
motives and are probablyto be dated to the 9th-8th centuryB.C.10 It has the
characteristiccylindrical shape, now somewhat flattened, with rounded base
ending in a button, and the usual disposition of the design in horizontal
registers. This depicts two identicalcalves passantleft between narrowbands
of geometricornament. On the base is a sixteen-petalledrosette,each alternate
petal being hatched. The calf is portrayedwith a typicallybovine head, body
and tufted tail" but, instead of the conventional single horn pointing forward,
has a lyre-shapedpair. The curling hair of the head, chest, neck and back is
summarilyrenderedby narrow borderswith engraved or raisedcircles and the
body is covered with dots. The ribs are enclosed in a quadrilinearframe and
the muscles are boldly delineated,the shoulder having the kidney shape found
in Assyrian art from the time of Ashur-nasir-palII. The decoration of the
base with a rosette and row of ovolos is customaryon this type of vessel but
the artisthas departedfrom the norm on the rim, substitutinghatchedtriangles
for the tress pattern in the upper register and using the tress instead of the
ovolo in the lower. The tress is curiously and clumsily elongated and runs
towards the right instead of in the more usual reverse direction.'2 The raised
parts of the design seem to have been produced mainly by the repousse tech-
nique but in certain areas, notably round the muscles, they were accentuated
by chasing. Detail was added by engraving.
8 E. Porada, Ancient Iran, fig. S8. 11 The head, and also the off-side foreleg, are
" Museum no. E.2.I965. H. IS3 mm. distorted in the photograph.
10Cf. G. Conteneau, "Situles du Louristan", Revue 12 A tress running right occurs on a situla in the
des arts asiatiques,I 2 (I 93 8) 32 ff; Manueld'archiologie Museum of Geneva; cf. M. W. Deonna, R.A. 42
orientale,IV, 2I68 f; E. Porada, op.-ci. 71 f. (I948), figs 4-6.

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