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Composition and Continuity in Sasanian Rock Reliefs

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Composition and Continuity in Sasanian Rock Reliefs 0320-07_Iran_Antiq_43_12_Thompson 09-01-2008 15:04 Pagina 299 Iranica Antiqua, vol. XLIII, 2008 doi: 10.2143/IA.43.0.2024052 COMPOSITION AND CONTINUITY IN SASANIAN ROCK RELIEFS BY Emma THOMPSON (University of Sydney, Australia) Abstract: The cliffs of Iran are adorned with rock reliefs from every period of its long history. During the years that the Sasanian dynasty ruled Iran, artists added to this collection considerably. These monuments are individual capsules of infor- mation on the general political, religious, historical and artistic milieu of the time. This paper presents a method for furthering our understanding of the Sasanian period through an analysis of the composition of each Sasanian relief. The analy- sis is based on the hypothesis that composition will serve as an indicator of artis- tic continuity and change and encode an artistic signature of sorts indicating the artists’ background and training. The initial results suggest that the reliefs of the early Sasanian period reflect the work of artists from at least two schools of art. Keywords: Sasanian, rock reliefs, composition. The kings of the Sasanian dynasty ruled Iran for over four hundred years. During the first eighty-five years of the dynasty (AD 224-309) there were seven changes of crown, many military gains and losses and thirty rock carvings were commissioned to commemorate these events. Most of these were carved in Fars, the homeland of the dynasty: eight were carved in the company of the Achaemenid tombs at Naqsh-i Rustam; six line the way to Shapur’s city at Bishapur; four were carved in the open air grotto at Naqsh- i Radjab; two were carved near Ardashir’s first city at Firuzabad and the rest were carved as single reliefs at various locations across the province of Fars: Barm-i Dilak, Sar Mashhad, Sarab-i Bahram, Guyum, Rayy, Darab- gird, and Tang-i Qandil. These reliefs are the principal monuments of the Sasanian period. Individually they contain valuable information about the social, religious, and political environment of the depicted king and as a group they reveal valuable information about the artistic environment of the time. This paper presents the results of research that demonstrates that our understanding of the Sasanian Empire and the artists who conceived its 0320-07_Iran_Antiq_43_12_Thompson 09-01-2008 15:04 Pagina 300 300 E. THOMPSON greatest monuments can be furthered by a comprehensive analysis of the composition of each relief and can reveal the nature of the artistic environ- ment at the time1. This study is born out of the hypothesis that the decisions made by the artists during the process of composition will serve as a signa- ture of schooling and causes the reliefs to unite or divide into groups accord- ingly. It assumes that the process of composition, as a step between con- ception and execution, was completed for every relief. This is a fair assumption, as all pieces of work beyond mere scribblings require compo- sition. The study also assumes that these reliefs began as small scale-draw- ings that were then transposed onto the rock surface at a much larger scale. The task of composition is entirely removed from the task of carving. There- fore, this study will not address the reliefs as three-dimensional pieces of work, complete with intricate mouldings of hair and clothing, but rather as two-dimensional drawings of the artist’s original conception. This research required the development of a technique for investigating rock reliefs out- side of function, meaning or ‘beauty’, and instead in terms of composition. The result is a desktop technique that does not require excursion into the field. This is only possible because of the depth and integrity of previous research by scholars of the Sasanian period2. They have created a field that is mature and suitable for the comprehensive comparative analysis that I am proposing. This paper demonstrates the technique and presents the results of eight reliefs from this early Sasanian period: Naqsh-i Rustam I and Naqsh- i Radjab III commissioned by Ardashir (AD 224-241), the first Sasanian king; Naqsh-i Rustam VI commissioned by his son Shapur I (AD 241-271); Bishapur V, commissioned by Bahram I (AD 271-274), another son of Ardashir and brother to Shapur I; Sar Mashhad, Sarab-i Bahram and Bisha- pur IV, commissioned by Bahram II (AD 274-292), the son of Bahram I; and Naqsh-i Rustam VIII, commissioned by Narseh (AD 293-301), son of Shapur I. These eight reliefs were chosen for publication because they rep- resent a selection across 5 different reigns. In these eight the identity of the king is clearly identified by his crown and the kings are represented in a variety of situations — seated, standing and equestrian. 1 Thompson, E 2004. A compositional analysis of early Sasanian rock reliefs from Fars province, Iran PhD thesis, University of Sydney, Australia. 2 Such as the thorough descriptions and detailed, quality photographs as those in the Iranische Denkmäler series (Herrmann 1977, Herrmann 1989, Herrmann & Howell 1980, Herrmann & Howell 1981, Herrmann & Howell 1983). 0320-07_Iran_Antiq_43_12_Thompson 09-01-2008 15:04 Pagina 301 SASANIAN ROCK RELIEFS 301 Compositional analysis The design carved into the rock is the accumulated result of many decisions made by the sculptor. These decisions form the process of composition. Composition involves every step from conception to execution. It is an essential step in the production of any piece of artwork and is thus com- mon to all rock reliefs. During the process of composition, an artist’s blank page demands many answers: what shape will the frame be? Where will the point of focus be? How many figures? Will the scene be symmetrical or will the fulcrum be off centre? What size is the design destined for? And so on. These choices are made in light of the artist’s intended message or concept (Panofsky 1970: 83). The structure is a conscious intention to communicate a certain idea. To do this, artists have storehouses of techni- cal and aesthetic solutions to challenges of representation (Root 1990: 129). For instance, when faced with depicting a person, the artist does not draw from life but from previously developed methods of constructing a human figure. Artists from similar backgrounds, mentors and schooling have similar storehouses. In addition, convention in composition is much slower to change than conventions of modelling and representation of detail. Two reliefs that appear to be carved by separate hands may share some elements of composition. Therefore, this paper demonstrates that the analysis of a relief not as a whole, complete monument, but as an accu- mulation of compositional decisions made by the artist will reveal that artists’ background, mentors and schooling and provide a look into his/her storehouse. It is the express aim of this study to analyse a collection of the Sasanian rock reliefs in this way in order to further our knowledge of the artistic environment of the time. Method Each relief was prepared for compositional analysis in the same way. A scale line drawing was created for all reliefs before they were each analysed for size, shape, midlines, and division of the frame. This was fol- lowed by an examination of the content of each composition for the angles employed to create balance, interest, movement and harmony. The results of each set of analysis are presented below. As a complimentary exercise it is useful to conduct a hypothetical projection of the path of the viewers’ eye through these angles. While useful, this exercise is unverifiable and 0320-07_Iran_Antiq_43_12_Thompson 09-01-2008 15:04 Pagina 302 302 E. THOMPSON serves only to validate the assessment of angles and highlight the focal point of the relief. The final stage of analysis focuses on the individual ele- ments of each composition. The figure of the king and, where applicable, the figure of the king’s horse are examined for proportion. Preparation of the reliefs Clear, front-on photographs are available for all of the selected reliefs. With the aid of a GIS mapping program3, these photographs can be treated as maps and registered to a coordinate system based on the dimensions of the panel. This study does not make use of any of MapInfo’s interpretive capabilities but rather employs its strengths at managing and displaying images within a specific coordinate system. To use MapInfo to manipulate maps, the geographical coordinates of a map are registered using at least three known longitude/latitude coordinates as control points or anchors. By entering this information, the user has the ability to pan, zoom, and view the map at any scale (Johnson 1996: 215). The photographs of the reliefs are treated in the same way as an aerial photograph or map. The four cor- ners of the panel act as the control points to register the photograph to an x, y non-earth grid. Once registered, the reliefs can be manipulated as maps, with zoom capabilities up to 800%. The MapInfo program utilises layers of information. The original map or photo works as the foundation layer, then information from that map can be digitised into many layers of information to be viewed or manipulated separately or together. For instance, a paper map can indicate roads, rivers, train lines and contour lines on one confusing sheet. MapInfo allows this map to be viewed as four separate maps, or layers, with one sheet for each feature. This is achieved by a process of digitisation. Digitisation is the process of tracing the map objects into separate layers. The number of layers is not limited, and when viewed together, they appear as one. The steps required to prepare a relief for analysis are: 1.
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