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A limestone relief depicting the profile of a standing man wearing a draped robe and a tall headpiece. He holds an object in one hand and his bottom half has a large circle around it.

A rectangular limestone relief depicting the profile of a standing bearded man who faces the viewer’s right. He is wearing a long robe that has wide, draped sleeves and a tall,flat headpiece. He holds an object in his left hand and his right hand is raised in front of his chest. His bottom half has a large circle around it. The entire piece is grey and light brown with a long, narrow piece broken off from the top-left corner.

Gallery Text

The God with Clipped Wings

A great god is Ahuramazda, who created this earth, who created heaven, who created man, who created happiness for man, who made Xerxes king, one king of many kings . . .

This relief fragment of the god Ahuramazda in a winged disk was originally located high inside a doorway to a great hall at Persepolis, a capital of the Achaemenid Persian empire in Iran. Echoing the above inscriptions of King Xerxes I (r. 486–465 BCE), Ahuramazda hovered above an image of the enthroned king, who was supported by representatives of the empire’s subject peoples, lending divine legitimacy to Achaemenid rule.

Most of the doorway remains at Persepolis. The story of this fragment is told by its edges: smooth at top and bottom, where the original block joined others, and ragged on the sides, where it was trimmed to create a collector’s item. By restoring some sense of Ahuramazda’s soaring power, this installation acknowl-edges the damage and loss of context resulting from the often clandestine removal of antiquities from Middle Eastern sites that have ended up in western museums. More fragments from Persepolis are displayed in the gallery next door (3440).

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.1062
Title
Relief Fragment: Ahuramazda in the Winged Disk
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
reigns of Xerxes I and Artaxerxes I, 486-460 BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Persepolis (Persia)
Period
Achaemenid period
Culture
Achaemenid
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/291721

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3440, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Ancient Middle Eastern Art in the Service of Kings
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Limestone, traces of blue, green, and red paint
Technique
Relief
Dimensions
73 cm h x 44.3 cm w x 10 cm d (28 3/4 x 17 7/16 x 3 15/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
From the Hall of 100 Columns (west side of southeast doorway), Persepolis (Iran). [E. Sassoon, Paris,(by 1931)], sold; to [Brummer Gallery, Inc, New York, (1931-1932)], sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, NY, (1932-1943), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.1062
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Eric Schroeder, "Relief Sculptures from Persepolis", Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum (1943), Vol. 10, No. 2, 44-45, p. 44-45, fig. 3.
  • Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman, A Survey of Persian Art From Prehistoric Times to the Present, Oxford University Press (NY) and Oxford University Press (UK) (London, England and New York, NY, 1967), Vol. I, p. 333; Vol. VII, pl. 96c.
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 256 (checklist).
  • Judith Lerner, The Achaemenid Relief of Ahura Mazda in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Bulletin of the Asia Institute (Shiraz, 1971), no. 2, pp. 19-35, pp. 19-35
  • Judith Lerner, "A Painted Relief from Persepolis", Archaeology, Archaeological Institute of America (New York, April 1973), vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 116-22, pp. 116-22, ill.
  • George M. A. Hanfmann and David Gordon Mitten, "The Art of Classical Antiquity", Apollo (May 1978), vol. 107, no. 195, pp. 362-369, fig. 3.
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), p. 97, no. 107, ill.
  • Susanne Ebbinghaus, Katherine Eremin, Judith Lerner, Alexander Nagel, and Angela Chang, An Achaemenid God in Color, Heritage, Heritage (https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage7010001, December 19, 2024), 7(1), Pages 1-49, Figure 1, Page 4; Figure 2, Page 5; Figure 5, Page 8; Figure 7, Page 10; Figure 8, Page 13; Figure 9, Page 14; Figure 10, Page 15; Figure 11, Page 16; Figure 12, Page 16; Figure 13, Page 17; Figure 14, Page 14; Figure 15, Page 14; Figure 16, Page 19; Figure 17, Page 19; Figure 18, Page 20; Figure 19, Page 20; Figure 20, Page 21; Figure 21, Page 21; Figure 22, Page 22; Figure 23, Page 23; Figure 24, Page 23; Figure 25, Page 24; Figure 26, Page 24

Exhibition History

  • Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/22/2007 - 01/20/2008
  • 32Q: 3460 East Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/04/2021 - 12/09/2024
  • 32Q: 3440 Middle East, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/09/2024 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project
  • ReFrame
  • Collection Highlights

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu