Iranian Art and Architecture I INTRODUCTION Iranian Art and Architecture, the visual arts of Iran. Although in the West this has been traditionally known as Persian culture, the inhabitants of the country have long called it Iran and themselves Iranians, rather than Persians. In accordance with popular usage, however, the term Persian will be used in this article to refer to the period before the advent of Islam in the 7th century AD—that is, the period of the ancient Persian empires—as well as the preceding prehistoric times. II ANCIENT PERIOD Griffin Bracelet This gold armlet, made in Persia during the Achaemenid dynasty, is part of the Treasure of the Oxus, a collection of decorative objects from the Persian Empire now located in the British Museum in London, England. The armlet was originally inlaid with glass and colored stones; its most distinctive features are the huge winged griffins, whose heads form the ends of the piece. Large animal-headed armlets such as this one were highly prized by the Achaemenids; similar pieces are shown being offered to the king on the reliefs of the Apadana stairs. Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York Ceramics and clay figurines were the chief artworks of the prehistoric period, and architecture and sculpture predominated during the period of the first two Persian empires (6th century BC to 7th century AD ). After the Arab conquest and the introduction of Islam in the 7th century AD, sculpture was little practiced but architecture flourished. Painting became a major art in the period from the 13th to the 17th century. In the 20th century these ancient arts were being revived, and traditional forms were combined with Western technology and contemporary materials. A Architecture Prehistoric architecture in Iran remains little known but has gradually begun to come to light since World War II. Among the earliest examples are a number of small houses of packed mud and mud brick found at several Neolithic sites in western Iran: Tepe Ali Kosh, Tepe Guran, Ganj Dareh Tepe, and Hajji Firuz Tepe. These sites show that small villages made up of one-room houses and storage structures were already established along the western border of the country by 6000 BC. Excavations at Tal-i Bakun, near Persepolis, and Tal-i Iblis and Tepe Yahya, near Kermān, show that by 4000 BC buildings with a number of rooms were being erected and grouped into villages or small towns. All of these structures indicate that the traditional building techniques using packed mud and sun-dried mud brick had already been invented. At Shahr-i Sokhta in Seistan an elaborate Bronze Age palace (circa 2500 BC) was excavated. The plans of these remains show a steady growth in complexity ending with the establishment of important commercial centers on the plateau. At the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the Iranian tribal groups, including the Medes and Persians, spread over the plateau and displaced or absorbed the indigenous inhabitants. The architecture and crafts of this Iron Age period, which immediately preceded the founding of the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great, have been brought to light by excavations near Kangavar (Godin Tepe and Babajan Tepe), near Hamadān (Nush-i Jan Tepe), and at Zendan-i Suleiman and Tepe Hasanlu in northwestern Iran. These sites revealed for the first time a tradition of building in which large columnar halls are used as a central feature. The columns were of wood set on stone slabs, while the buildings themselves were of uncut stone and mud-brick construction. Stairways and terraces, along with other features, formed the prototypes for later developments in the imperial architecture of Pasargadae and Persepolis. The buildings at Nush-i Jan Tepe and Godin Tepe are almost certainly Median in origin and are the first structures excavated belonging to the Medes. These discoveries confirm the generalized descriptions of battlements and palaces found in the literary sources, especially of the Greek historian Herodotus. A1 Achaemenian Period Throne Hall Relief, Persepolis Carved relief sculptures decorated many of the stone door and window jambs at Persepolis in Iran, including this entrance to the Throne Hall. The Throne Hall was begun by Xerxes in the early 5th century bc as a place to receive visiting representatives from all the nations ruled by the Persian Empire. The king is shown seated at the top of the relief as a dignitary approaches. Guards fill the rows below. Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York The first great development of ancient Persian architecture took place under the Achaemenid dynasty during the Persian Empire, from about 550 to 330 BC. Remains of Achaemenian architecture are numerous, the earliest being ruins at Pasargadae, the capital city of Cyrus the Great. These ruins include two palaces, a sacred precinct, a citadel, a tower, and the tomb of Cyrus. The palaces were set in walled gardens and contained central columnar halls, the largest of which was 37 m (111 ft) in length. The proportions of the principal rooms varied from square to rectangular; all were lighted by a clerestory. Walls were constructed of mud brick; foundations, doorways, columns, and dadoes along the walls were of stone. Columns were capped with stone blocks carved to represent the forequarters of horses or lions with horns, placed back to back. The roof was flat and was probably made of wood. The sacred precinct consisted of a walled court containing two altars and a rectangular stepped platform. The tower was a tall rectangular structure built of yellow limestone; a contrasting black limestone was used for the doorway and two tiers of blind windows. The tomb of Cyrus was a small gabled stone building placed on a stepped platform. The surrounding columns were placed there during recent Islamic times. Darius I built a new capital at Persepolis, to which additions were made by Xerxes I and Artaxerxes I (reigned 465-425 BC). Three vast terraces were hewn and leveled out of the rocky site, and on them mud-brick and stone buildings, similar to those at Pasargadae, were erected. The buildings at Persepolis differed from those at Pasargadae in a number of ways. The columnar halls were square, walls were broken by windows and windowlike niches of stone, and the stone dado was not applied. Doorways bore a quarter-round cornice ornamented with a petal motif, probably of Egyptian origin. Column shafts were fluted rather than plain, the bases and caps were ornamented with floral decorations, and the termination of the column, called the impost block, took the form of naturalistically rendered forequarters of bulls or bulls with wings. These buildings had ceilings of cedarwood, carried on heavy balks or beams that rested on the stone impost blocks at the tops of the columns. Remnants of the Apadana, Persepolis Stone doorways and 13 of the 72 massive stone columns that originally supported the Apadana, or audience hall, at Persepolis are still standing today. Each column was 20 m (66 ft) tall and was topped by an elaborate capital. The double- headed animals at the top of the capitals once supported wooden roof beams. Persepolis is located in the mountainous region of southwestern Iran. The dry climate preserved much of the architecture, and archaeologists have uncovered and restored many of the ruins. Ali Issari Other remains of Achaemenian architecture exist at Sūsa, where Darius I built a large palace, which was subsequently rebuilt by Artaxerxes II (reigned 409-358?BC). Royal architecture under the Achaemenids also included tombs cut in solid rock, of which the best-known examples are those at Naqshah Rostam near Persepolis. Little is known of the popular building practices of the period, but archaeologists believe that the ordinary dwelling was made of mud brick. After the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, and the assumption of power by the Seleucid dynasty, Persian architecture followed the styles common to the Greek world (see Greek Art and Architecture). The great Greek-style Temple of Anāhita at Kangavar was excavated by the Archaeological Service of Iran with a view to eventual restoration. The temple had been destroyed by a severe earthquake in antiquity. Subsequently, under the Parthian Arsacid dynasty, which lasted from about 250 BC to AD 224, a small number of buildings was constructed in native Persian style. The most notable monument of this period is a palace at Hatra (now Al Ḩadr, Iraq), dating from the 1st or 2nd century AD and exemplifying the use of the barrel vault on a grand scale. The vaults, heavy walls, and small rooms of this palace indicate a continuation of earlier Assyrian and Babylonian tradition. A2 Sassanian Period A great renaissance in architecture took place under the Sassanid dynasty, which ruled Persia from 224 until 651. Construction was radically different from that of the Achaemenian period. Walls were built of burnt brick or small stones bound with mortar; barrel vaults of brick were used to span rooms and corridors; and domes were erected over the large halls. The principal features of the plan of the palaces at Persepolis were adopted, but the various rooms were enclosed within a single building. Thus, the same building incorporated a public audience hall, a smaller private audience hall, and a complex of lesser rooms. Remains of the major monuments of Sassanian architecture include the ruins of domed palaces at Firuzabad, Girra, and Sarvestan, and the vast vaulted hall at Ctesiphon. The large site of Bishapur was systematically excavated in the mid-20th century by the Archaeological Service of Iran. Palace sites have also been excavated at Qais, Hira, and Damghan. Other ruins include bridges at Dizful and Shushtar and a number of small temples built at various locales for the Zoroastrian worship of fire.