Ancient Near Eastern Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v ...
Ancient Near Eastern Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v ...
Ancient Near Eastern Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v ...
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the decorated bronze vessel: by hammering,<br />
repousse, and chasing. A most<br />
impressive example <strong>of</strong> the hammering<br />
technique is the lovely silver figurine <strong>of</strong><br />
an antelope (fig. 61), which is identified<br />
here on the basis <strong>of</strong> stylistic and iconographic<br />
traits as the creation <strong>of</strong> a Proto-<br />
Elamite master <strong>of</strong> the third millennium<br />
B.C. Both the gazelle and the contemporary<br />
kneeling silver bull (see fig. 23) were<br />
made from separate pieces <strong>of</strong> silver hammered<br />
into shape; each piece was then<br />
fitted into the other and finally joined by<br />
silver solder.<br />
By the fourth millennium B.C., lost-wax,<br />
as well as open- and bivalve-mold casting<br />
had been developed. In the ingenious<br />
lost-wax process the desired image<br />
is sculpted in wax, which is then surrounded<br />
with a clay investment that hardens<br />
into a mold when baked. <strong>The</strong> mold<br />
has a negative space, corresponding to<br />
the burnt-wax image, into which is poured<br />
molten metal that hardens into the shape<br />
<strong>of</strong> the original wax model. <strong>The</strong> thirdmillennium<br />
B.C. ibex stand (fig. 60),<br />
<strong>of</strong> copper alloyed with arsenic, is among<br />
the earliest examples <strong>of</strong> the more complex<br />
technique <strong>of</strong> lost-wax casting around<br />
a central ceramic core.<br />
A handsome silver plate (fig. 63), a<br />
product <strong>of</strong> the last part <strong>of</strong> the Sasanian<br />
period (fifth to early sixth century A.D.),<br />
combines the metalworking techniques<br />
described above with others. <strong>The</strong> plate<br />
itself was hammered into its final shape<br />
from a cast ingot. <strong>The</strong> low-relief decoration<br />
was formed by carving away the<br />
background close to the figures, while<br />
the higher relief <strong>of</strong> the bodies <strong>of</strong> the king,<br />
his horse, and the rams was made from<br />
separate cast or hammered pieces that<br />
were crimped into place. <strong>The</strong> linear details<br />
were either chased into the silver or<br />
engraved-a process <strong>of</strong> cutting instead<br />
<strong>of</strong> pushing away strips <strong>of</strong> metal. A ring<br />
base was attached with solder to the<br />
bottom <strong>of</strong> the plate. Except for the king's<br />
face and hands, all the decoration is<br />
gilded with an amalgam <strong>of</strong> gold and<br />
mercury. Niello, a shiny black, hard compound<br />
<strong>of</strong> silver and sulphur, accents the<br />
king's quiver and bow, and the rams'<br />
horns, tails, and hooves. H.P.<br />
64<br />
46