Persian Empire: Artifact 4

Relief of Servant

 

      "Preserved is the nearly complete figure of a Persian attendant bearing a leather wineskin. In typical Persian fashion he is dressed in a kandys, a long-sleeved coat slung over the shoulders, and a bashlyk, a soft protective hood with long, scarf-like ends. As the curving palm leaves at the top indicate, this fragment once decorated the inner wall of a stairway leading to the palace of Darius. This carving was probably executed early in the reign of Darius' son, Xerxes (485-465 BC), who added the greater part of the palace's sculptural decoration. This figure originally formed part of a procession of Persian and Median servants shown ascending the palace stairs as royal visitors would have done on ceremonial occasions."

Works Cited
Information: Cincinnati Art Museum. "Relief with attendant bearing wineskin."
     Cincinnati, OH: Cincinnati Art Museum, 2011. Plaque
Picture: https://www.flickr.com/photos/frted/4685426885/