Standing Figure with Feathered Headdress

12th–early 13th century
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 453
The ornamented headdress, arms, and rich vestments of this figure suggests that figures like this one most likely represent a sovereign’s personal guard, viziers or amirs. Probably meant to decorate the reception hall of a ruler’s court, be it the Seljuq sultan or one of his local vassals or successors, they would parallel and enhance actual ceremonies in the very setting in which they took place. Recent analyses have proven that a traditionally-made gypsum plaster is consistently employed on these figures and on archaeological stuccoes. The figures also display integrated restoration of the first half of the twentieth century, including additions in a more refined gypsum, and modern pigments (some of the reds and synthetic ultramarine blue).

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Standing Figure with Feathered Headdress
  • Date: 12th–early 13th century
  • Geography: Attributed to Iran
  • Medium: Gypsum plaster; modeled, carved, polychrome-painted, gilded
  • Dimensions: H. 47 in. (119.4 cm)
    W. 20 1/2 in. (52.1 cm)
    D. 8 3/4 in. (22.2 cm) (including wall mount)
    Wt. 170 lbs. (77.1 kg)
    from the bottom of the coat to the top of the crown: 46 in. (116.8 cm)
  • Classification: Sculpture
  • Credit Line: Cora Timken Burnett Collection of Persian Miniatures and Other Persian Art Objects, Bequest of Cora Timken Burnett, 1956
  • Object Number: 57.51.18
  • Curatorial Department: Islamic Art

Audio

Cover Image for 6691. Two Royal Figures, Part 1

6691. Two Royal Figures, Part 1

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SHEILA CANBY: I’m Sheila Canby, I’m Head of the Islamic Art Dept, and I’m lucky to be here today speaking to Stefan Heidemann, about two of our most interesting pieces. Two stucco figures that defy the belief that there is no sculpture in Islamic art – because that’s what they are!

STEFAN HEIDEMANN: I'm fascinated by those two figures. They are almost life size and they are moonlike faces, which are associated in the Middle Ages with Central Asian, Turkish people…. We find crowns on them. One is a jeweled crown, and the other one has two little wings. And this always goes back to the ancient Iranian Sassanian period. And this revival of Sassanian forms has something to do with the glory of the ancient Persian empires, which the rulers in Iran and Central Asia tried to revive. Both figures seem to be royal figures. but they were part of a larger stucco decoration a revetment or a panel… within a large audience hall. And if we look at the close parallels which are not in stucco, but are in fresco… then we have the palaces in Samarkand of the 10th and 11th century which show similar life-size figures with similar garments and the frescoes… as they are all three-quarter figures directed to a center…or to a central figure. So we have to imagine a room with these figures in the center of a decoration. and then this room was used, of course, for audiences. So the audience at the wall increased the audience within the room.

SHEILA CANBY: Very clever of them.

NARRATOR: While there is a tendency to avoid figural images in Islamic Art, such imagery did play an important role. For our visitors if you want to hear about this, press PLAY.

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