SCENE OF FIGHTING TIGERS ON A SASANIAN PLATE FROM MES ‘AYNAK.
Source: National Geographic
I. Description of a Monument
A scene placed in a circular, compact format. A rider shown on a disproportionately small horse galloping to the left, depicted in a “flying gallop”. To the right of the rider, a male and female tigers are shown. They are positioned slightly diagonally, almost vertically, with their paws stretched out towards the rider. The rider’s head is shown in the profile, shoulder and body in frontal view, the leg in profile, slightly bent back, the foot is stretched down. A sheath of a sword hangs from the belt. The rider’s right arm, rigidly drawn diagonally, crosses the upper part of the man’s torso, a sword in his hand with a horizontally depicted blade inserted into the tiger’s breast. The rider’s left arm is raised vertically, holding a tiger cub in his hand, lying with its belly upwards. Another tiger is shown stretched and under the horse. Below were placed three conventionally depicted mountains. The vertical axis of the picture is marked by the line of the rider’s arm, his hips, foot and shoulder of the lying tiger. The horizontal axis is marked by the back of the horse and is emphasised by a visible fragment of the sword’s blade.
The man’s face is long and slender with a prominent nose and a large, wide open eye. The man is bearded and has a wavy moustache. The head is covered with an oval headgear, covered with a pattern of dots and a vertical line, topped with a crescent, whose fastening is hidden behind a bow of the top diadem. Three triangular ends of the ribbons protrude horizontally and rigidly from behind the knot. Dense curls fall on the neck, from behind them two ribbons of a diadem wave vigorously.
The body, arms and legs of the man are covered with dense wavy lines of cloak folds. On his shoulders, he has rounded hems. Two ribbons blow to the left from behind her back. A narrow belt on the hips, fastened with two round buckles with a bow and ribbons. The scabbard belt of the sword supports the lower parts of the tunic on the thigh and saddle.
Trousers or man’s leggings pulled down with ribbons and round buckles at the height of ankles. The ribbons blow to the right behind the foot.
The horse is muscular, heavily built with schematically marked muscles and joints. The neck is bent round, the head is turned back towards the breast. Mane cut, slightly longer over the head. Above the forehead, the top is bound with a ribbon. The reigns are decorated with a dense row of triangular elements. Similarly decorated is the rump-strap. There is a decorative necklace on the horse’s neck. The elements of the saddle cannot be seen, covered by the leg of the rider and his tunic, the saddle cloth is decorated with a zigzag pattern, two ribbons blow from the edge.
The bodies and heads of tigers are stylised, covered with rows of dots and stylised fur tufts.
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[conclusion]
The decoration of the plate from Mes ‘Aynak proves that the approach to the scenes of “royal” or “princely” personages in Sasanian art was far more relaxed and diversified already in the Kushano-Sasanian oeuvre, this, in turn suggests that the differentiation in employment of the visual conventions was not suppressed by any governmental bodies. Even though the Berlin plate (Fig. 26) was suggested by Khurshudian to represent an Armenian school or tradition of Sasanian toreutics72, one must agree that the differences in the corpus of available Sasanian toreutics do not allow attributing firmly particular features as specific geographic and/or chronological factors. The Kushano-Sasanian pieces are, in this case, unique as they point not only the geographical region but also the general period of their creation. Mes ‘Aynak plate revolutionises the knowledge of the development and functioning of the Sasanian iconographic conventions, at the same time providing additional clues regarding possible geographic origin or evolution of the motifs. The pieces can be divided according to the stylistic and iconographic distance from discussed Mes ‘Aynak plate:
• The group closest to Mes ‘Aynak plate consists of the plate from Hermitage (Fig. 22) with the scene of boar fight and the plate from Japanese collection (Fig. 14). The similarities in treatment of the robes and of the horse tack and general composition were mentioned earlier. They are all undoubtedly related however the differences may represent different stages of evolution of Kushano-Sasanian art or simply different workshops of the East-Iranian school, absorbing the Sasanian influences while preserving the local post-Hellenistic features.
• The second group of relation consists of two, almost identical plates from Hermitage (Fig. 22) and British Museum (Fig. 23) and the scene from the “Hephtalite” bowl from British Museum (Fig. 11). The former two seem to perfectly fill the gap between Hermitage plate with “boar hunt” and Mes ‘Aynak plate, containing the elements of both however the treatment of the garments, different way of depicting of the horse and differences in the horse-tack make them the second closest. The bowl from British Museum is closer to Mes ‘Aynak plate than any of the others but differs strongly in style and details. What attracts attention is that the royal personage on the British Museum bowl is fleeing a lion and a lioness which although turned to the opposite direction has her head directed towards the rider. This is far from the lion and the lioness attacking the rider on Mes ‘Aynak piece but the relation is thus emphasised.
• The third group is made of Frabicius plate (Fig. 24) and the plate with Shapur killing a deer he is sitting on. The relation of the former comes from the position of the head of the horse which, although untypical for Sasanian art, was related to post-Hellenistic iconography of Bactria while the latter example corresponds by the body and arms position.
The above confirms that the Mes ‘Aynak plate represents the eastern school of Sasanian or Kushano-Sasanian school toreutics. It also seems plausible that the employment of the swords in the scenes of the mounted combat with the beasts was initiated in this milieu which was probably less constrained with the fixed conventions than Central Iran or Mesopotamia. Application of the model of fighting the beasts with the sword of foot to the mounted formula was a first step, most likely followed by adoption of replacement of the thrust with slashing technique, at the same time allowing the elements of the local visual tradition to influence the borrowed Sasanian convention and re-design the conventions themselves.
72 Khurshudian 2003: 272-286.
Source: "SCENE OF FIGHTING TIGERS ON A SASANIAN PLATE FROM MES ‘AYNAK. NOTES ON THE COMPOSITION" By Patryk N Skupniewicz, 2020, Acta Archaeologica Lodziensia 66
