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Persian elements in the arts ofneighbouring countriesProfessor D. Talbot RicePublished online: 25 Feb 2011.

To cite this article: Professor D. Talbot Rice (1937) Persian elements in the arts ofneighbouring countries, Journal of The Royal Central Asian Society, 24:3, 385-396, DOI:10.1080/03068373708730804

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PERSIAN ELEMENTS IN THE ARTS OFNEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES*

BY PROFESSOR D. TALBOT RICE

The first annual " Persia Lecture " before the Royal Central Asian Society onMarch 31, 1937, in the Hall of the Royal Society of Arts, the Right Hon. LordLamington, G.C.M.G., in the Chair,

The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, said that he spoke as the Presidentof the Persia section of the Royal Central Asian Society. He felt it was a greatprivilege to have the pleasure of presiding on the occasion which was to be thefirst of a series of lectures on Persian culture and history.

Iranian sculpture had had a very great influence on the world at large,especially in ancient times; and Persia had a beautiful influence on the art of theworld.

THOUGH the importance of the role played by Persia in theformation of Islamic art as a whole after the establishment ofthe Abbasid dynasty at Baghdad in 750 has long been

generally recognized, the degree of influence which she exercised onthe arts of neighbouring lands at an earlier date has been more debated.The task of estimating this influence with any degree of accuracy has,indeed, presented numerous complications, owing to the frequentscarcity of material on which to base conclusions. Of recent years,however, archaeological discoveries have progressed so rapidly thatplenty of material is available; the difficulty is to keep pace with it. Itwould be impossible to attempt to deal with all of it, even had I theknowledge, in the space of an hour. I shall hence omit the later andthe earlier periods, and will attempt to give a general idea of the mag-nitude and nature of Iran's influence by citing examples from aboutthe fourdi century B.C. onwards until the full establishment of Islam.

The later ages present such a wealth of material attesting Iranianinfluence that it is hard to select a few odd examples; I therefore leavethem for separate consideration. The earlier ages again cannot, Iregret to say, be considered; for one reason, time and space forbid, foranother they present a very different problem, for the age of the greatHellenic conquests under Alexander presents a very definite and im-portant break in the history of all the cultures of the Nearer East.Alexander's conquests and die fabulous marches of his troops are

* The notes at the end refer to the most conveniently accessible illustrations.

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bywords of history; but perhaps even more amazing was the effectthat these advances exercised on art. At that time the Greek idiomwas strongly implanted all over western Asia, and from then onwards,until full Islamic times, it remains alive, sometimes cropping up in aconsiderable degree of purity and sometimes blended. Sometimes,again, it is completely obscured by the idiom of the East, whichgradually advances westwards from about the second century B.C.down to the twelfth century or so A.D. But whereas the power andquality of the Greek idiom gradually waned, that of the Eastern ele-ment gradually waxed, so that by about 800 A.D. it had not onlybecome vital and predominant in Nearer Asia, but had also penetratedfar and wide in Europe.

In an examination of the spread of this element the first questionthat arises is that of its nature. What exactly was this Eastern mannerin art, and in how far is it to be considered as Iranian?

It is, to begin with, not the art of the ancient Iranian world thatconcerns us. The vast palaces of Perscpolis, with their tall columnsand fantastic monsters, the friezes of archers of Susa, with theirmajesty and grandeur; these are definitely things of the past. Eventhe stylized animal art of Luristan, with its bronzework, is somethingrather foreign to this new age. A different spirit has penetrated art,which is not to be attributed either to the ancient world or to Greece.It is more vivid, more realist, more mysterious; it may be summarizedby the one word " expressionist," to borrow a term which is in generaluse among students of the art of to-day. One can see its presence insculpture in such a monument as the relief of Antiochos I. of Com-magene at Nimrud Dagh of about 34 B.C.,1 or in architecture, on amore imposing scale, in the palace of Hatra of the first century A.D.2

There is none of the straightforward pomp and circumstance of theold world of Persepolis here; litde of the polished elegance of Greece.Both these monuments, and many others with them, not only savourof mystery and of strange, hidden cults, but they also show the " ex-pressionist" manner of the new art. That is to say, both of them,the palace with its great halls open at the cast end only, and the reliefwith its strange, symbolic headdresses, are the very expression of areligion which centred around the sun cult. In the same way, a doorjamb from Hatra is the very expression of an age when symbolismand ornament were more or less synonymous; how different is this toa classical frieze, which is inseparable in idea from the open-air naturecults and the athletic life of Greece.

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Along with this "expressionist" art, there was also penetratinganother distinct manner, the purely non-representational, which sevenhundred years later was to culminate in the aniconic art of Islam onthe one hand and in the iconoclast movement in Byzantium on theother. As early as the very beginning of the Christian period its in-fluence is but seldom fully realised—the heritage of the ancient worldand of the Greek art, disseminated by the conquests of Alexander, wasstill too strong to permit it, for the non-representational manner wasfar more revolutionary in spirit than was the vein which we term the" expressionist." But we can see it clearly by the early fourth cen-tury in the Mausoleum and Palace of Diocletian at Spalato, and themanner is definitely to the fore by the sixth century, as we see in suchmonuments as the two pillars from Acre now erected near St. Mark'sat Venice.3 Before the establishment of Christianity we see the mannerattempting to penetrate in the art of the " Caravan Cities " of thedesert fringe, as in the temple of Bacchus at Baalbeck.

Where exactly these two new arts, the " expressionist" and thenon-representational, were born cannot as yet be affirmed with cer-tainty. Strzygowski, the veteran historian of art, whose statements,propounded as pure theory, have so often been proved by later dis-coveries as fact, suggests, in his more recent books,4 that the latter, asymbolical, searching art, was evolved in the frozen north, and that itgradually moved towards the clement Mediterranean zone, to inter-mingle there with a straightforward, purely figural art, in its turn in-digenous to the warm climate of the south. The degree of admixtureproduced the various other arts that we know, and the " expressionist"art distinguished here is to be accounted for as a blend, wherein thespeculative element of the North was well to the fore, though notentirely uppermost.

Wherever and however they originated, one fact seems clearabout both these trends—namely, that it was in Iran that theblend which produced the "expressionist" art first took place, andthat it was there that the non-representational style first began todevelop an elaborate and a characteristic idiom of its own and toutilize certain specific, and usually symbolical motives, in a veryspecialized way. And hence, though all speculation as to ultimateorigins is beyond our consideration here, the history of these arts is in-extricably mixed up with the history of art in Iran. And one may setin the same category the history of a certain type of architecture,characterized by an extensive use of domes and vaults, of rather thick

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also to be found in South Russia, as, for instance, in a tomb at Panti-capaeum of the second century A.D. The Russian examples arestrikingly akin to the Dura scenes, and the whole spirit and system ofParthian and Sasanian art, on the one hand, and of what is presum-ably to be called Sarmatian, on the other, is so closely akin that thenorthern and the southern branches can without doubt be classed ascousins, both of them finding a common parent in Iran. The truephysiognomy of this parent is preserved in its direct offspring, Sasanianart. The closeness of the relationship may again be illustrated bycomparing a typical piece of Palmyrene sculpture and a wall-paintingof the head of Demeter from the Great Bliznitsa mound in SouthRussia. Here the greatest common multiple is again unquestionablyIran, and the spirit of the art is identical with that of Sasanian sculp-ture, as exemplified, for instance, in the fallen statue of Shapur theGreat in a cave sanctuary many hundreds of feet above the plain onwhich Shapur city stands. The relationship may be underlined byillustrating one further piece of Palmyrene work, showing a man onhorseback, in the Museum at Palmyra.8

The influence of this spirit on sculpture to the west of Iran is verywidespread, and it is even to be traced in the Byzantine world.Though most of the sculpture produced there before the time of Jus-tinian was either purely architectural or definitely Roman in appear-ance, here and there examples in the Iranian manner crop up, and thehead, usually associated with Theodora, in the Castello at Milan, maybe cited as an example.9

Apart from this very distinct manner, this " expressionist" art ofIran is again to be distinguished by its naive character, its love offrontality, and by a curious dissociation of man and matter. One seesthis especially clearly in the well-known painting of 85 A.D., discoveredby Brestead at Dura at the end of the war.10 It depicts a Mazdaean,and hence an Iranian, scene. The same manner is apparent in apainting of the second century A.D. at Kcrtch.11 An even more in-teresting parallel is the sixth-century ivory in the British Museum ofthe Archangel Michael, who stands frontally on a flight of steps withhis feet spread over them.12 This is no incompetence on the artist'spart. It is the new Iranian manner, which we see on numerousEastern monuments, and more especially at Dura. Mr. Hinks mostaptly described it in his book on Carolingian Art as the " Levitatingtreatment."

After these excursions into the realm of aesthetics it will be well to

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39° PERSIAN ELEMENTS IN THE ARTS

come to earth and offer further instances of Iranian influence of amore concrete character, where techniques, motives, and so forth areconcerned. Such instances are none the less numerous.

The motives of stuccos from Hira, Sasanian in style, but actuallypost-Sasanian in date, are thus closely paralleled at Damghan inNorthern Persia or at Ray, in the Sasanian period, on the one hand,13

and at Amman in Transjordania, of the Moslem age, on the other. An-other sculptured stone at Amman bears the Iranian tree of life,14 whichwe see paralleled at Taq-i-Bostan or on a Sasanian ewer in the Biblio-theque Nationale. The whole decoration of the desert palace of Mshatta,almost certainly to be assigned to the middle of the Omayyad period,15

is again essentially Iranian, and the favourite Sasanian motive, thedog-bird, which we know from numerous textiles and vessels, as on asilver dish from Kytmanova in the Hermitage,16 not only appears there,but also on numerous other monuments. A large group of textiles,which show the same creature, such as one in the Victoria and AlbertMuseum, are descended from Iranian models. The superb Byzantinesilk at Sens, known as the shroud of St. Siviard, is die outcome of thisvein. Others, with such motives as mounted riders shooting back-wards, are again Iranian in origin, though many of them were made inEgypt or in the Byzantine world. Most famous are die examples inthe Kunstgewerbe Museum at Berlin.17 A number of Egyptian onesare reproduced by von Falke in his book on textiles.

Another motive which presents a very interesting history is thatof a particular type of cross, widi sprigs or leaves on either side ofthe stem. It was in very great favour in die Nestorian world, and wesee it in all Nestorian art, from the Stela of Siganfu of 781 in China,to Hira in Mesopotamia. It was also in favour in Armenia, as, forinstance, on the church on the Island of Achdiamar, Lake Van (915-921).18 In the Byzantine world it only came into favour as a result ofthe iconoclast controversy. It is to be counted as an instance of theEastern influence diat distinguished that movement, and, together withother motives and Meas, is almost certainly to be attributed to Iran.

In die odier so-called minor arts the debt, not only of Islam, butalso of die Byzantine world, to Iran is even more considerable, andhere techniques are concerned as well as motives and style. The wholefamily of sgraffito pottery is possibly to be counted as of Iranian in-spiration, though it is impossible to make sweeping affirmations withregard to so usual and widespread a technique. But apart from this,there arc numerous specimens of pottery in die Byzantine world which

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OF NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES 39I

show close Persian influence. A bowl in my possession, of the thir-teenth century, bears two parrots of Eastern appearance,19 and thecolouring, in green, yellow and brown, is again closely influenced byPersia. Another bowl, from Corinth, shows a similar manner; athird, with its charming delicate scene of a deer in foliage, might wellhave been drawn by a Persian artist.

A distinct group, with painted polychrome decoration, examples ofwhich have been found at Preslav and Padeina in Bulgaria, and atConstantinople, though less Iranian in technique is often more Iranianin motive. Sometimes the inspiration is Islamic, as on a plate in mypossession, which bears a Kufic script. But more often it is Sasanian,the rather heavy, stylized floral motives attesting die Eastern spirit.Most striking in diis respect are plaques and tiles from Patleina andPreslav in Bulgaria.

These motives must have reached die Byzantine world along diegreat trade routes, to the north by way of Trebizond and Armenia, todie soudi by way of Antioch and the Euphrates. Frequent dioughdieir occurrence is, however, die art of the Byzantine world remainsByzantine; it is only die motives, or sometimes a particular stylisticmanner, diat are to be attributed to the world outside. In Bulgaria,on die odier hand, die Iranian element goes much deeper, for it wasconveyed along widi die Bulgars themselves from dieir original homebetween the Caspian and die Caucasus. It was only gradually sup-planted by die idiom of Byzantine art, which penetrated from Con-stantinople, when once die Bulgars were firmly established in dieirnew home soudi of die Danube.

Striking instances of diis original Iranian style are to be found inall die arts in Bulgaria. Thus die two ninth-century palaces at AbobaPliska, excavated by die Russian Archaeological Institute of Constanti-nople before die war, are entirely non-Hellenistic and non-Byzantinein plan. The walls are diick, die rooms long and narrow, as can beseen from a plan of die building known as " The Great Palace."20

Rooms of similar shape, widi a similar disposition of narrow flankingpassages, are to be seen in die Sasanian palace of Firuzabad (226-242),and, even more striking, in those excavated by die Oxford-FieldMuseum expedition at Kish. The litde palace at Aboba Pliska, again,is almost an exact replica in double of die Sasanian palace at Sarvistan.The method of construction—three longitudinal blocks alternatingwidi one transverse one—is only to be found in die earliest Bulgarmonuments at Madara, Preslav, and Tirnovo; the later ones show

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39 2 PERSIAN ELEMENTS IN THE ARTS

the adoption of normal Byzantine methods, and the plans are alsoByzantine.

We see the Sasanian influence again present in the rock relief atMadara, which was erected during the reign of the Khan Omurtag(814-831).21 It shows a mounted rider in a costume of rather Iraniantype, and below are a dog and a lion transfixed with a lance. It maybe compared with numerous Sasanian rock reliefs, or with similarsubjects on the silver plates. A striking parallel with regard to thehorse is offered by a relief showing the triumph of Bahram II. atShapur (2JJ-293).22

It would seem wellnigh certain that the famous Nagy Szent Miklostreasure is to be assigned to the same wave of migration and phaseof art, for its Sasanian appearance is marked. The winged gryphonattacking a deer is most striking; the rider on a human-headed steedis a less Sasanian motive, but the whole style is Iranian. Iranian againare the form and part of the ornament of a drinking bowl in the shapeof a ram from the same treasure, while another bowl, with an in-tricate interlacing non-representational ornament, is more typical of theart of the central European migrations. But it attests the sameoriginal influence, which travelled from Iran by way of South Russia.Here the spirit is more northern, and there is practically no hint of thatblending with the art of the south or the Mediterranean region whichwas alluded to at the outset, and which produced by intermixture our" expressionist" art.

Our examination has thus carried us in a half-circle round Persia,and widi the Bulgars and the art of the migrations we are conveyedback once more to South Russia, and also to the Caucasus-Caspianarea. The Caucasus, and more especially the Eastern Caucasus andArmenia, has ever been something in the nature of an outpost of Iran,and to attempt to examine the Iranian influence there, whether inIslamic or in Christian art, would be a very lengthy task, calling forwide and detailed research. I can do no more here than allude to thework of Strzygowski, who regards Armenian architecture as an off-shoot of Iranian, which uses ashlar work instead of brick or the roughstone masonry of Sasanian building, and call passing attention to theceramics, metal work, and sculpture of Daghestan, which constitutean important but distinct branch of Persian art of the Islamic period.A few more words must, however, be said about South Russia, for itwas here at an early date that Iranian art played one of its most im-portant roles.

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The culture which we know as Sarmatian and which flourished inSouth Russia for about five centuries from the third century B.C. on-wards has already been alluded to. Its most characteristic art was whatRostovtzev terms the " polychrome style," a rich art of jewellery andmetal, where a profuse ornament of coloured stones overlies the metal,so that the ground is very often hardly visible at all. This art was notonly highly developed in the region; it was also carried westwards byvarious migrations, both Hunnic, from the east, and Gothic, from thenorth, and it formed as a result the basis of all the various arts of thedark ages in Europe, which we know under the varying terms ofMerovingian, Frankish, Visi-Gothic, and so on. An excellent exampleis the Berengaria Cross at Monza. The origin of this polychrome styleis now generally accepted as Iranian, and some of the finest earlyexamples that we have are the superb bracelets from die Oxus treasure,one of which is in the British Museum and one in the Victoria andAlbert. The precious stones that adorned them have long since mostlydisappeared, but the cloisons or partitions that held the stones can beclearly seen.23-24

The Sarmatian age in South Russia came as a successor to a moreor less purely Hellenistic culture in the cities, alongside which thereexisted the nomad Scythian culture from the seventh to the thirdcentury B.C. At first the Hellenistic culture shows occasional Iranianelements in its art; as time goes on these become more and morenumerous, until the Hellenistic-Sarmatian art, which we have illustratedby paintings at the Great Bliznitsa, is evolved. Scythian art showsrather more Iranian influence at an early date, and certain motives ofIranian origin, such as the animal combats, have been so assimilatedinto the art that we have come to regard them as definitely Scythian.In actual fact, Scythian art in its earliest stages is devoid of Iranianelements; it was an art of a nomad people, developed in Siberia insuch materials as bone, leather, or in small, hard wood, as we see inthe remarkable find made a few years ago at Pazirik in the Altai.Only later did it become a sumptuous art, with gold as one of its moreusual media, and only later were the Iranian elements assimilated.

To travel farther into the Eastern world is beyond my powers.And to try to estimate the Persian influence in the art of Islam, fromSpain on the one hand to India on the other, would take many hours.I can but allude to it, and then, before closing, summarize briefly myconclusions.

The influence of Iran is to be seen in practically every neighbour-

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ing land, and at practically every period from Hellenistic times onward.Sometimes it is exemplified in motives of decoration, sometimes inplans of buildings or types of construction, sometimes in the mannerof work or in technique. But such influences have been exercised togreater or lesser degree by every art of quality—for quality is invariablyimitated. What is far more important is the role played by Iran asthe initiator of a very distinct manner, which has here been termedthe " expressionist." I have alluded to various aspects of this style,but, I fear, not clearly enough. I have hinted at the immensity of thebreak which the introduction of this new style marks, but it has onlybeen a hint. The real significance is far greater than that of a break.It is the initiation of a whole new style, distinct from that of theAncient as from that of die Classical world. It is the style which wasto be practised in Byzantium, and, in fact, in the whole of Europeuntil the Renaissance. It is die style of the " dark ages." " It is out ofPersia that emerged the whole of the Middles Ages," writes Strzygow-ski in his most recendy published work, L'Ancien Art ChrStien deSyrie. One may confidently say that without Greece the Renaissancecould never have existed. And so, without Iran, the Middle Agescould never have existed. The glories of Romanesque and Gothichave long been recognized; Byzantium is at last beginning to comeinto her own; we are now coming to realize diat a great deal of dieobscurity of the dark ages is in our knowledge of diem radier than inthe ages themselves. And for all this the glory of initiation, thoughnaturally not of accomplishment, must go to Iran.

The CHAIRMAN : I think Professor Talbot Rice will realize how verymuch we are indebted to him from the applause he has just received.We owe a great deal to him for the remarkable address he has given,and for the pictures he has thrown on the screen. I was especiallystruck by one of the slides, which reminded me of a mosque I sawrecendy in Senegal. And in a new Christian church, which was one ofthe most beautiful modern edifices I have seen, there was evidence ofan Oriental design. So even to-day Oriental culture brings to people asense of beauty and an understanding of real values.

Sir PERCY SYKES : In die absence of Mr. Upham Pope, I would say

that, while listening to this extraordinarily able lecture, what struck mewas the marvellous introduction it forms to the Survey of Persian Artdiat Mr. Upham Pope has promised us for diis autumn. It will comeout in seven volumes, so it will take us a long time to examine it. That

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work will be die great artistic event of die year, and diis marvellouslecture will serve us as an introduction to it.

Professor MINORSKY: Sassanian art is very far from being myspeciality. I have gready admired Professor Talbot Rice's particularpoint of view, in that instead of studying Iranian art in itself as a closedfield of art, he took the effect of its radiations and developed die aspectof die results of the emanations of an art outside its own particularcountry. His mention of die influence of Persia in as obscure a fieldas the metal-work of Daghestan is an example of how complete are hismaterials for this study.

I am not, however, entirely convinced that we can unite all dieinfluences of Iranian art together in Sassanian times. Salmatian art hadso many variants that I should not perhaps class as one the art ofIranian nomads and die art of the setded population of Iran. It seems tome that, as in their Zoroastrian religion, diere is some dualism in dieirart. Perhaps those northern emanations of Iranian art might be con-nected with the art of other nomads, perhaps with those of Siberia, ofwhich undoubtedly die nomad peoples of Iran were by origin one.

There is anodier thing we must not forget—diat is, that flowingoutwards towards Iran there were other influences, as, for instance, thatof Rome. There are action and reaction o£ every kind in the influencethat one art has on anodier. I would say, dien, that Iranian art, andespecially Sassanian art, had come under the influences from very farWest.

We have to thank Professor Talbot Rice for an extremely interestingpaper, illustrated with wonderful photographs.

The meeting closed widi a vote of thanks to the lecturer.

NOTES1 Sarre, Die Kunst des alten Persien, Berlin, 1923, Pl. 56.2 Sarre, op. cit., Pls. 58, 59.3 Strzygowski, L'ancien art chrétien de Syrie, Paris, 1936, Pl. XIX.4 See especially his Asiens bildende Kunst and L'ancien art chritien de Syrie.5 Reproductions of all these buildings are given by the author in an article

entitled "Some Near Eastern Elements in Western Architecture," ArchitecturalReview, July, 1935, vol. lxxviii., p. 15.

6 Rostovtzev, Dura and the Problem of Parthian Art, Yale Classical Studies,1936, Fig. 79.

7 Sarre, op. cit., Pls. 88 ff.8 For illustrations see Rostovtzev, op. cit., Figs. 78 ff.9 D. Talbot Rice, Byzantine Art, Oxford, 1935, Pl. 26c.

10 Brestead, Oriental Forerunners of Byzantine Painting, Yale, 1924.26

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396 PERSIAN ELEMENTS IN THE ARTS1 1 Rostovtzev, Antique Decorative Art in South Russia, St. Petersburg, 1914,

Plates. (Text in Russian.)1 2 Talbot Rice, Byzantine Art, Pl. 29b.1 3 Talbot Rice, " The Oxford Excavations at Hira," 1931, in Antiquity, Sept.,

1932, vol. vi., No. 23. Plates.1 4 Strzygowski, Origin of Christian Church Art, Oxford, 1923, Fig. 29.1 5 Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, vol. i.1 6 Sarre, op. cit., Pl. 121.1 7 Sarre, op. cit., Pls. 98, 99.1 8 Strzygowski, Origin of Christian Church Art, Fig. 57.1 9 For this and others see D . Talbot Rice, Byzantine Glazed Pottery, Oxford,

1930.2 0 See B. Filow, " Les Palais vieux-Bulgares et les palais sassanides," in L'Art

byzantin chez les Slaves, vol. i., Pt. I., Paris, 1930. See also Filow, as in note 23.2 1 See G. Kacarov, "Notes sur la sculpture rupestre de Madara," in L'Art

byzantin chez les Slaves, vol. i., Pt. I. Sec also Filow, as in note 23.2 2 Sarre, op. cit., Pl. 79.2 3 B. Filow, Geschichte det altbulgarischen Kunst, Berlin, 1932, Pls. 4 and 5.2 4 Sarre, op. cit., Pl. 50.

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