Plate

Object Details

• Description

  Bowl, shallow, silver on low ring foot, with a Bacchanalian triumphal scene in flat relief against a gilded background. Chased, engraved, and gilded.

• Label

  This complex scene, which decorates the interior of a shallow plate, testifies to the lively cultural interaction that took place between the eastern Mediterranean and Central Asia in the first millennium. In the center, the Greek god Dionysos (depicted here with female-like breasts) sits nexts to the princess Ariadne; to the right stands the hero Herakles. The plate depicts the triumphal arrival of the Greek god Dionysos in India. A popular subject of Roman imperial art, it was later depicted over a wide area of the Byzantine Empire in textiles, gemstones, and metalwork, and transferred through such portable media to neighboring Sasanian Iran.

• Provenance

  To 1964

  Mahboubian Gallery of Ancient Art, Tehran, Iran and New York. [1]

  From 1964

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Mahboubian Gallery of Ancient Art, Tehran, Iran and New York. [2]

  Notes:

  [1] Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List file after 1920, Collections Management Office.

  [2] See note 1.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Feast Your Eyes: A Taste for Luxury in Ancient Iran (February 4, 2012 - ongoing)

  Ancient Art of the Near East (November 21, 2009 to December 1, 2011)

  Luxury Arts of the Silk Route Empires (May 9, 1993 to January 28, 2007)

  Ancient Near Eastern Metalware (December 18, 1984 to February 24, 1986)

  Pre-Islamic Metalwork from the Near East (April 15, 1983 to April 4, 1984)

  Art of the Near East (August 21, 1977 to December 14, 1979)

  Near Eastern Art (June 15, 1973 to May 7, 1975)

  2500 Years of Persian Art—Paintings, Metalwork (February 10, 1972 to June 15, 1973)

  Near Eastern Art—Paintings, Metalwork (August 18, 1967 to February 10, 1972)

  Near Eastern Art (January 1, 1963 to August 18, 1967)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Mahboubian Gallery of Ancient Art

• Origin

  Iran

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Vessel

• On View

  Sackler Gallery 21: Feast Your Eyes: A Taste for Luxury in Ancient Iran

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

  The information presented on this website may be revised and updated at any time as ongoing research progresses or as otherwise warranted. Pending any such revisions and updates, information on this site may be incomplete or inaccurate or may contain typographical errors. Neither the Smithsonian nor its regents, officers, employees, or agents make any representations about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the information on the site. Use this site and the information provided on it subject to your own judgment. The National Museum of Asian Art welcomes information that would augment or clarify the ownership history of objects in their collections.

Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  600s, 400s

• Name

  Mahboubian Gallery of Ancient Art

• Topic

  Gilding, Hammering, Silver, Art, Carving, Ancient Near Eastern Art, Sasanian period (ca. 224 - 651), Chasing, Engraving (incising), Metal-work

• Culture

  Iranians, Middle Easterners

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)

• On View

  Yes