Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History


    • Cup with a frieze of gazelles, early 1st millennium b.c.
    Northwestern Iran, Caspian region
    Gold; H. 2 9/16 in. (6.5 cm)
    Rogers Fund, 1962 (62.84)

    A number of cups similar to this one have been found in the excavation of the rich burials at Marlik, a site southwest of the Caspian Sea in northern Iran.

    On the body of the cup, four gazelles, framed horizontally by guilloche bands, walk in procession to the left. Their bodies are rendered in repoussè and are detailed with finely chased lines to indicate hair and musculature. The projecting heads were made separately, as were the ears and horns, and were fastened invisibly in place by a colloid hard-soldering, a process much practiced in Iran involving glue and copper salt. The hooves and eyes are indented, probably to receive inlays.

    Related


    This work has been published in the Museum's Bulletin or Journal. These articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship.
  • Wilkinson, Charles Kyrle. "Art of the Marlik Culture." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 24, no. 3 (November, 1965).
    JSTOR | PDF
  • Harper, Prudence O., Barbara A. Porter, Oscar White Muscarella, Holly Pittman, and Ira Spar. "Ancient Near Eastern Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 41, no. 4 (Spring, 1984).
    JSTOR | PDF
    • On view: Gallery 404
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    • Cup with a frieze of gazelles, early 1st millennium B.C.
    Northwestern Iran, Caspian region
    Gold; H. 2 9/16 in. (6.5 cm)
    Rogers Fund, 1962 (62.84)

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