Bowl

500 - 600 CE

Sasanian

On View

Ancient Middle East Gallery, Level 1, West Wing

Image Only Image + Details All Images High Resolution TIFF Metadata

About the Artwork

Please note: This section is empty
Markings

Please note: This section is empty

This section contains information about signatures, inscriptions and/or markings an object may have.
Provenance

Please note: This section is empty

Provenance is a record of an object's ownership. We are continually researching and updating this information to show a more accurate record and to ensure that this object was ethically and legally obtained.

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Published References

Please note: This section is empty

We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Catalogue Raisonné

Please note: This section is empty

A catalogue raisonné is an annotated listing of artworks created by an artist across different media.
Credit Line for Reproduction

Please note: This section is empty

The credit line includes information about the object, such as the artist, title, date, and medium. Also listed is its ownership, the manner in which it was acquired, and its accession number. This information must be cited alongside the object whenever it is shown or reproduced.

About the Artwork

The Sasanian Empire (226-641), which stretched from the Tigris to the Ganges, threatening even the great power of Rome and Byzantium, left a legacy of works in silver unrivaled in the ancient world. Plates with representations of the king as hunter were products for the court, ewers with motifs of dancing women were for ritual use, and, late in the period, silver vessels were commissioned for the growing middle class. This drinking bowl is hammered, gilded, and carved with the design in chased relief. A guinea fowl decorates the interior while vine scrolls with birds, guinea fowl, and a bear, fox, and dog eating grapes fill the exterior. At the center is a ram wearing a jeweled, ribboned collar. The imagery of animals and vines is borrowed from the late classical cult of Dionysus while the ram, symbol of the war god Verethragna, is a potent symbol of Sasanian royalty.

Title Bowl

Artwork Date 500 - 600 CE

Artist ----------

Life Dates ----------

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Unknown

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Sasanian

Medium Gilded silver

Dimensions Overall: 2 × 5 1/4 inches (5.1 × 13.3 cm)

Classification Silver

Department Ancient Near Eastern Art

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Sarah Beacon Hill Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 62.266

Markings

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

(J. J. Klejman Gallery)

1962-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

Suggest Feedback

Published References

The Institute Collects. DIA. December 8, 1964-January 3, 1965, p. 22.

Grabar, Oleg, ed. Sasanian Silver Late Antique and Early Mediaeval Arts of Luxury from Iran. Exh. cat., The University of Michigan Museum of Art. Ann Arbor, August 13-September 17, 1967, cat. no. 41, p. 124, 125 (ill.).

Peck, E. H. "A Sasanian Silver Bowl," Bulletin of the DIA 47, no. 2 (1968): pp. 23-27, (cover ill.).

Dodd, E. C. "A Silver Vessel in the Collection of Elie Borowshi," Harvard Ukrainian Studies, vol. VII (1983): p. 152, (fig. 2) (ill.), pp. 146-147.

Henshaw, Julia P., ed. A Visitors Guide: The Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1995, p. 101 (ill.)

Kindly share your feedback or any additional information, as this record is still a work in progress and may need further refinement.

Suggest Feedback