Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum | Bush-Reisinger Museum | Arthur M. Sackler Museum

The Hall of 100 Columns, constructed for the Persian king Xerxes (r. 486–465 BCE), has multiple doorways that show a royal hero fighting mythical beasts and the king elevated by his troops and the empire’s subject peoples. Above the king hovers a figure in a winged disk, likely the god Ahuramazda. Xerxes’ predecessor Darius stated: “A great god is Ahuramazda, who created this earth, who created yonder heaven, who created man, who created happiness for man, who made Darius king, one king of many, one lord of many.” In representing their supreme power, the Persian kings emphasized religious legitimization, control over evil forces, and the establishment of an imperial world order. These timeless images are in marked contrast to the particular battle and hunt scenes dominating many Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs. Both Assyrian and Persian reliefs were painted; this fragment preserves traces of color and incised patterns.

Object Number

1943.1062

Title

Ahuramazda in the Winged Disk

Classification

Sculpture

Work Type

sculpture

Date

486-460 BCE

Places

Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Persepolis (Persia)

Period

Achaemenid period

Culture

Achaemenid

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/291721

Medium

Limestone

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.)

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

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

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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.

Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/22/2007 - 01/20/2008

32Q: 3440 Near East, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Google Art Project

Collection Highlights

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