Photo ID: GA0010
Site: Firuzabad
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Description: The king's merit is rewarded by the diadem, or farr, of divine kingship. What makes the scene compelling to the viewer is its double meaning, and perhaps its multivalence. The scene is set in virtual space and at an imaginary moment in time. The perception of mundane physical time is here heightened by reference to a boundless, unconditional time when the king's personal feat becomes part of the immense cosmic process. The focus here on the act of investiture, and the reverential, sober and significant gestures of the participants, moreover, endow the scene with subtle overtones of the principle of good deeds performed and duly reward. The integration of the king's specific victory and his generic act of championship of the god's cause in this composition, argues for the presence of at least two layers of meaning in such depictions of historic documentaries in Sasanian art.
Photo Source: Berghe, Louis vanden, "Splendeur de Sassanides", Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Bruxelles, 1993.
See Sasanian Sites for collection summary.
Sasanian Projects at UC Berkeley
Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative
URL: ECAI.orgWebsite
Maintained by:Information
Systems and Services,
International and Area Studies,
UC Berkeley
Last updated: November 8, 2001:jlz