FREQUENTLY in craft history when the metal-arts
are at a high level, the ceramic arts are neglected.
Patronage from the upper classes goes to the smiths and
the ceramist has to earn his living making humbler
wares. This is to a considerable extent true of Sasanian
pottery. The chief products were large storage jars
(pithoi), notable primarily for scale and for a certain
sense of power due to the flattened curves of the con-
tours, often accented by crude mouldings and huge
necks ( Pl. 42 ). Size, force, and the rather rude execution
are all consistent with the spirit of the time. Their effect
is enhanced by thick blue-green glazes, inherited from
the Parthian craftsmen who had in turn learned them
from Egypt, and passed them on to the Han potters of
China.

Occasional pieces, however, show more studied care,
especially a series of amphorae found in Syria in which
Hellenistic and Iranian elements and styles may be com-
mingled, though some are purely Syro-Hellenistic. One,
however, is almost purely Sasanian (Pl. 34). The body,
glazed a rich green, is developed with contrasted tex-
tures, simply executed, but well conceived: vertically
channeled ribs below, a succession of serrated bands
mounting the shoulders, the transition emphasized by a
chain of thumb-impressed plaques which enhance the
whole scale by being proportionately huge.

But the focus of interest is on the neck, which also
magnifies the vessel by its height, repeated in the strong
straight handles. For here is a full-length figure of
Shapur 1 (241-272), first of the dynasty, wearing his
identifying high-globe crown, the ample royal cloak
floating from his shoulders, caught on the breast by a
characteristic huge brooch. The thick glaze largely ob-
scures the details, but there is majesty in the poise.

THE prodigious energy of the Sasanian bronzes sur-
vived into Islamic times. A somewhat clumsy but
powerful golden brown jug in the Walters Gallery
(Pl. 40) retains the force of its earlier prototype. This
is a masculine and robust art; such vessels were designed
not for mortals but for gods and heroes. They are wrought
in shapes not easily tamed or prettified.

Some of these forms survived the depression of the
Arabic conquest, which they must morally have helped
to bridge, and actually lasted into Seljuq times. Dating
of some of these pieces is hardly possible, but style is not
always a matter of the calendar, and a piece such as this
should properly be classed as Sasanian even though, as
the handle suggests, it was actually fabricated at a later
date. The ornament, though a little crude and badly
obscured by wear, as well as the shape are truly Sasanian
in feeling, the interlocking quatrefoil and the overlapping
segments as well as the little arcade are typical Sasanian
devices.

There was a renaissance of interest in bird and animal
forms under the incredibly luxurious Caliphate of Bagh-
dad. We read of fabulous mechanical contrivances, gold
and jewelled, depicting animals, none of which have sur-
vived. Several birds, however, are known which may date
from the eighth or ninth century, none so handsome or
impressive as the highly simplified yet wholly natural
bronze pigeon ( Pl. 41 ). Reduction to essentials could
hardly go further, nor could intense vitality be more ef-
fectively expressed. The emphasis on the eye and, as
always, on the firm stance, the poise of the head with
the elongated neck suggesting alarm or alert attention
tell all that need be told.

No one knows where this sculpture was executed,
nor just when. Perhaps the craftsman was not Iranian
but west Asiatic, a last practitioner of the Syrian metal-
art which had developed in a Gnostic milieu perpetuat-
ing themes ultimately Phoenician. But the bird could
also be Persian, from the heroic age of the eighth to
tenth centuries which produced the vigorous early lustre-
painted ceramic wares ( Pl. 46A, B ) and the cobalt
painted pottery ( Pls.49A, B ). The spirit is much the
same, and for all that the medium is entirely different,
there are some instructive comparisons between this
three-dimensional bronze pigeon and the lustre-painted
peacock ( Pl. 49A ).

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