[Sasanian Relief Sculpture at Naqsh-i Rustam: The Investiture of King Ardeshir I by the Zoroastrian God Ohrmazd]
With an authority that no other medium could achieve, the newly invented process of photography brought western Europeans a truthful and evocative record of faraway sights. Luigi Pesce, a Neapolitan who became commander in chief of the Persian infantry in 1848, made the earliest photographs of Persian antiquities and Islamic architecture.
This view of a third-century sculptural relief at Naqsh-i Rustam, near Persepolis, in modern-day Iran, is one of seventy-five rare early photographs of the region in an album donated to the Metropolitan by the late Charles K. Wilkinson. Wilkinson joined the Museum's archaeological expedition in Egypt in 1920, became curator of Ancient Near Eastern Art in 1956, and headed the Department from 1959 until his retirement in 1963.
This view of a third-century sculptural relief at Naqsh-i Rustam, near Persepolis, in modern-day Iran, is one of seventy-five rare early photographs of the region in an album donated to the Metropolitan by the late Charles K. Wilkinson. Wilkinson joined the Museum's archaeological expedition in Egypt in 1920, became curator of Ancient Near Eastern Art in 1956, and headed the Department from 1959 until his retirement in 1963.
Artwork Details
- Title: [Sasanian Relief Sculpture at Naqsh-i Rustam: The Investiture of King Ardeshir I by the Zoroastrian God Ohrmazd]
- Artist: Luigi Pesce (Italian, 1818–1891)
- Date: 1850s
- Medium: Salted paper print from paper negative
- Dimensions: 18.8 x 23.6 cm. (7 3/8 x 9 5/16 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Gift of Charles K. and Irma B. Wilkinson, 1977
- Object Number: 1977.683.66
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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Multiple artists/makers
1840s–60s
Luigi Pesce
1858
Luigi Pesce
1858
Luigi Pesce
1858
Luigi Pesce
1858
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