Late Sasanian silver vessels, particularly bottles and ewers, often were decorated with female figures holding a variety of festal objects. The appearance of these motifs attests to the continuing influence of Greek imagery associated with the wine god Dionysus. On this silver-gilt vessel, floral arches, supported by low pilasters, frame four dancing female figures. Each holds a ceremonial object in either hand: grape and leaf branches, a vessel, a heart-shaped flower. Beneath one arcade, birds peck at fruit, and beneath another a tiny panther drinks from a ewer. Both the females and their decorative motifs recall representations of the maenads, attendants of Dionysus. However, it has been suggested that these figures have been adapted to the cult of the Iranian goddess Anahita. No texts survive to explain the appearance or function of these female figures, but it seems likely that vessels decorated with motifs such as these would have been intended to hold wine for court celebrations or religious festivals.
#7022. Ewer with dancing females within arcades, Part 1
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7022. Ewer with dancing females within arcades, Part 1
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Artwork Details
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Title:Ewer with dancing females within arcades
Period:Sasanian
Date:ca. 6th–7th century CE
Geography:Iran
Culture:Sasanian
Medium:Silver, mercury gilding
Dimensions:H. of (a) 34 cm
Credit Line:Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. C. Douglas Dillon Gift and Rogers Fund, 1967
Accession Number:67.10a, b
[By 1965, with Nuri Farhadi and Habib Anavian, New York]; acquired by the Museum in 1967, purchased from Nuri Farhadi and Habib Anavian, New York.
“Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, November 14, 1970–June 1, 1971.
“Patterns of Collecting: Selected Acquisitions 1965-1975,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, December 6, 1975–March 23, 1976.
“Wealth of the Roman World: Gold and Silver AD 300-700,” The British Museum, London, April 1–October 1, 1977.
"Age of spirituality : late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Nov. 19, 1977 - Feb. 12, 1978.
“The Royal Hunter: Art of the Sasanian Empire,” Asia House Gallery, New York, The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
“Weihrauch und Seide: Alte Kulturen an der Seidenstraße,” Palais Harrach, Vienna, January 21–April 14, 1996.
"Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, March 14–July 8, 2012.
"Persia: Ancient Iran and the Classical World." The Getty Villa, Los Angeles, April 6, 2022–August 8, 2022.
Bodenstein, Beatrice E., Vaughn E. Crawford, Prudence O. Harper, Oscar W. Muscarella. 1966. Ancient Near Eastern Art: Guide to the Collections. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 36, fig. 57.
Crawford, Vaughn E. 1967. "Reports of the Departments: Ancient Near Eastern Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 26 (2), Ninety-Seventh Annual Report of the Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Fiscal Year 1966-1967 (Oct., 1967), p. 52.
Rousseau, Theodore. 1970. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 29, p. 130.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1970. Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, exh. cat. New York: Dutton & Co., no. 103, p. 143.
Harper, Prudence Oliver. 1971. "Sources of Certain Female Representations in Sasanian Art." In La Persia nel Medioevo. Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, pp. 503-515, pl. II, fig. 1, 2.
Brunner, C.J. 1974. "Middle Persian Inscriptions of Sasanian Silverware." Metropolitan Museum Journal 9, p. 118, fig. 6.
Hoving, Thomas and Olga Raggio. 1975. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1965-1975. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 38.
Kent, J.P.C. and K.S. Painter (ed.). 1977. Wealth of the Roman World. Gold and Silver AD 300-700, exh. cat. The Trustees of the British Museum, p. 147, p. 154, no. 322.
Harper, Prudence Oliver. 1978. The Royal Hunter: Art of the Sasanian Empire, exh. cat. New York: Asia House, no. 18, pp. 60-61.
Harper, Prudence Oliver. 1979. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century, exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 132, pp. 154-155.
Harper, Prudence O. 1979. “Court Silver of Sasanian Iran.” In Highlights of Persian Art, edited by Richard Ettinghausen and Ehsan Yarshater. Persian Art Series 1. Boulder: Westview Press, pp. 109-11, fig. 59.
Harper, Prudence Oliver. et al. 1983. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Selections from the Collection of the Ancient Near East Department, exh. cat. Tokyo: Chunichi Shimbum, fig. 13.
Howard, Kathleen ed. 1983. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 50, fig. 12.
Yarshater, Ehsan, ed. 1983. The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. III: The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods, pl. 113c.
Gignoux, Philippe. 1984. "Éléments de prosopographie : II. Les possesseurs de coupes sasanides." Studia Iranica 13, p.34, no. 32 (as 6710A).
Harper, Prudence O. et al. 1984. "Ancient Near Eastern Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 41 (4), Spring 1984, p. 25, fig. 26.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1984. Report on Projects Funded by the Adelaide Milton de Groot Fund 1980-1983, in memory of the de Groot and Hawley Families. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 5.
Shepard, D. G. 1990. "The Iconography of Ana Hita, Part I," Berytus 28, p. 67, note 45.
Seipel Wilfried (ed.). 1996. Weihrauch und Seide: Alte Kulturen an der Seidenstraße. Milano & Wien: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna and Skira, 88, Cat. no. 88, p. 239.
Soudavar, Abolala. 2003. The Aura of Kings: Legitimacy and Divine Sanction in Iranian Kingship. Bibliotheca Iranica Intellectual Traditions Series, vol. 10. Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, p. 56, fig. 54.
Harper, Prudence O. 2006. In Search of a Cultural Identity: Monuments and Artifacts of the Sasanian Near East, 3rd to 7th Century A.D. Biennial Ehsan Yarshater Lecture Series No. 2. New York: Bibliotheca Persica, pp. 90, 112, fig. 60.
Evans, Helen C. and Brandie Ratliff (ed.). 2012. Ewer with Dancing Female Figures within Arcades. Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition, 7th–9th century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 20, p. 31.
Dan, Anca, Frantz Grenet and Nicholas Sims-Williams. 2014 [2018]. “Homeric Scenes in Bactria and India: Two Silver Plates with Bactrian and Middle Persian Inscriptions.” Bulletin of the Asia Institute 28, pp. 241, 264 fig. 44.
Spier, Jeffery, Timothy F. Potts, and Sara E. Cole, eds. 2022. Persia: Ancient Iran and the Classical World. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, pp. 330-333, no. 180.
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Includes more than 7,000 works ranging in date from the eighth millennium B.C. through the centuries just beyond the time of the Arab conquests of the seventh century A.D.
