Catalogue - Metropolitan Museum of Art

119,120
These figures and the two following are
rendered in striking silhouette, the
curvilinear designs within the body of the
cock increasing the decorative effect. The
elk is an animal one might expect to find in
the art of the Altai, but the cock is an
indication of foreign, probably Iranian
influence.
Elks, ornaments from a log sarcophagus.
Leather, lengths 29 cm. (113/8 in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th century B.C. Altai,
Pazyryk, kurgan 2. Excavations of S. I.
Rudenko, 1947. Hermitage, 1684/285, 283.
Rudenko, Kultura Gornogo Altaya, p. 46,
fig. 18.
121,122
Roosters, jug ornaments. Leather, heights
13.7 cm. (53/ in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th century B.C. Altai,
Pazyryk, kurgan 2. Excavations of
S. I. Rudenko, 1947. Hermitage, 1684/56,57.
Rudenko, Kultura Gornogo Altaya, p. 92,
fig. 44.
123 126
Belt fragment decorated with roosters.
Leather, length 53 cm. (207/8 in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th century B.C. Altai,
Pazyryk, kurgan 2. Excavations of
S. I. Rudenko, 1947. Hermitage, 1684/241.
Rudenko, Kultura Gornogo Altaya, p. 125,
fig. 71.
124
Flagon with applied ornament. Leather,
height 16.5 cm. (61/2 in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th century B.C. Altai,
Pazyryk, kurgan 2. Excavations of S. I.
Rudenko, 1947. Hermitage, 1684/87.
Rudenko, Kultura Gornogo Altaya,
pi. XXIII.
125
Woman's boot. Leather, textile, tin (or
pewter), gold, and pyrites, height 36 cm.
(141/s in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th century B.C. Altai,
Pazyryk, kurgan 2. Excavations of
S. I. Rudenko, 1947. Hermitage, 1684/218.
Rudenko, Kultura Gornogo Altaya,
pl. XXV, 2.
122
128
A theme much illustrated in nomadic art
both in Siberia and around the Black Sea is
that of a griffin slaying a stag. This
superb example shows an abbreviated
form of this subject, in which the heads of
these animals stand for the whole.
Griffin holding a stag's head, finial. Wood
and leather, height 35 cm. (133J/ in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th century B.C. Altai,
Pazyryk, kurgan 2. Excavations of
S. I. Rudenko, 1947. Hermitage, 1684/170.
Rudenko, Kultura Gornogo Altaya,
pl. LXXXIII, 1.
127
This wood and leather pole top, one of
four, originally was covered with gold leaf
to suggest a metal ornament.
Stag, finial. Wood and leather, height
11.5 cm. (41/2 in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th century, B.C. Altai,
Pazyryk, kurgan 2. Excavations of
S. I. Rudenko, 1947. Hermitage, 1684/154.
Rudenko, Drevneyshie kovry i tkani,
p. 28, fig. 15.
128
Goat's head and two geese, bridle frontlet.
Horn, height 20.6 cm. (81/? in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th century. Altai, Pazyryk,
kurgan 2. Excavations of S. I. Rudenko,
1947. Hermitage, 1684/353.
Rudenko, Kultura Gornogo Altaya, pl. C, 1.
125
123