Sasanian Art(Part 1.)

In contrast with the Arsacid empire, which had a loose structure, the Sassanians were able to establish a strong central power and thereby to control the unruly feudal aristocracy. In their well-trained army the Sasanians continued the effective units of heavy and light cavalry which had constituted the most powerful striking force of the Parthians. At the same time the Sasanian kings created an administration so efficient that it permitted them to carry out programmes of irrigation, town building and industrialization on a unprecedented scale.. [2] The wealth of Iran was probably never greater than in the time of the Sassanian power; it was the most formidable opponent of Rome, later of Byzantium.

In the first century of Sasanian rule, the empire was extended in the East at the expense of the Kushans of north-western India, whose power was already on the decline. In the West expansion was limited by Roman counter-measures so that the Sasanian frontiers never extended for long beyond the Euphrates. In the north Sasanian troops held the frontiers against the ever threatening incursions of nomads. The danger of invasion by hordes of barbarians from the steppes was so fully realized by Byzantine politicians that large sums of Byzantine coins were sent to Iran for support of the troops on the frontiers; ostensibly, these were contributions toward the extension and upkeep of the passes in the Caucasus.. [3] At other times the Sasanians were fighting the armies of Byzantium as a result of towns of northern Syria like Antioch, or over the wealthy kingdom of Armenia. In the east a dangerous element appeared in the reign of Shapur II [310-379] in the form of the White Huns, called Chionite-Hephthalites. Shapur warred against these Huns, perhaps with some success, because he obtained auxiliaries from them for his campaigns in the West. But they settled as 'confederates' in former Kushan territory and harassed the empire in the following centuries.

At the same time as the frontiers of the Sasanian empire were thus threatened and [p. 192] often embattled, men and goods must have passed across them, coming and going from the Sasanian centres to the kingdoms of Central Asia. There excavations of Palaces and castles have brought to light wall-paintings which indicate close relationship with Sassanian Iran in such portable commodities as textiles and other products of the luxury trade.. [4]

The greatest territorial extension of the Sasanian empire and the last apogee of its artistic activities were reached in the time of Khusraw II [591-628], a well known figure in the history and legend of the West, who had taken the Holy Cross from Jerusalem to his capital, Ctesiphon. The collapse of the empire began in Khusraw's own time as a result of the Byzantine counter-attack mounted by the Emperor Heraclius, who won back the western territories occupied by Khusraw and even besieged the latter in his capital, Ctesiphon, where he was murdered by his son. Shortly thereafter came the attack of the Arabs, who had only recently appeared as a redoubtable power in the Near east. Resistance of the Sasanians was broken in the battle of Nihavend in 642. Yezdegerd III, the last king, who had taken flight with his court towards the East, was murdered in the region of Merv in 651.

According to tradition the founding by the Sasanian Ardashir of a town which he called 'the glory of Ardashir' was considered by Ardavan, the last Arsacid, as an insufferable act of a vassal and to have provided the immediate cause for Ardavan�s ill-fated military action against Ardashir. This tradition conveys something of the political significance which pertained to builders and buildings in this period.

The plan of Ardashir's town was circular, as were those of some Parthian towns. Aerial photographs taken of the fertile valley of Firuzbad. [5] show the former circumference traceable in decayed earth ramparts and in the wide fosse of a ruined circumvallation. Arab writers tell us that four gates gave access to the town; their position can still be recognized today. In the centre of the one-time city a tall block of masonry rises from an artificial platform, perhaps the remains of a fire tower.. [6]

The principal palace of Ardashir was situated outside the town beside an [p. 193] abundant spring, which yielded sufficient water not only for the requirements of a large court but also for the irrigation of gardens. Even today palaces and gardens are planned in relation to springs which assure a plentiful supply of water. There is a dramatic contrast between Persian gardens with their luxuriant shady trees and cool pools and the dry dusty ground that lies beyond their walls.

Spring, garden and palace of Firuzabad formed an entity more obviously protected against the summer heat and the outside world than later buildings of similar type. The walls of this structure, which measured 104 x 55 metres,. [7] were built of rubble with quick-setting mortar and were as much as 4 metres wide. The outer walls seem to have been slightly articulated by two rows of vertical niches [see the remaining wall fragment on the left in Figure 104]. This articulation, however, would not have detracted from the massive defensible appearance of the structure, to which the low heavy cupolas must have contributed. Originally the rubble walls were covered with stucco, which is still preserved in some places in the domed halls and in the court of the palace. [p. 194] Niches, with a semi-circular top, were set in rectangular frames and moulded in the stucco. The lintel of these niches was formed by a cavetto cornice of the type used on the lintels of windows and doors in the palaces of Persepolis from which those of Firuzabad were surely copied in a conscious imitation of Achaemenid architectural features. [8]. . . . Here, in Firuzabad, as in the Parthian palace of Ashur, the iwan was conbined with the ancient Near [p. 195] Eastern type of house in which the rooms open on an inner court to produce a complex which was well suited to the climate of these regions.

Later palaces show variations of the basic forms employed in the palace of Ardashir. Thus the palace of Imaret-i Khusraw at Kasr-i Shirin, built in the time of Khusraw II [591-628], is a gigantically extended complex of an iwan-shaped entrance hall, a square domed hall, side rooms and courts, as well as surrounding living quarters. The structure measured 250 metres in length and 190 metres in width, and rose on an artificial terrace 8 metres in height, in front of which extended a narrow water channel about 550 metres in length.

Equally gigantic proportions distinguished the palace of Ctesiphon the residence of the Sasanians after the overthrow of the Parthians. . . .Here another characteristic trait of Sasanian architecture manifests itself: it was not important that the fa�ade should be structurally and logically articulated, as in buildings of classical antiquity, but rather that its should be richly . [9]decorated with a pattern which could be extended at will.

Today only the left side of the fa�ade of the palace of Ctesiphon remains standing. . . . [p. 196] On the same axis as the great hall of the 'Taq', but facing in the opposite direction, was a second hall only slightly shorter than the first and doubtless covered in similar manner by a barrel-vault. Communication between the two halls could not be established by the excavators, nor could any substantial suggestions be made to explain their function. In general scholars are inclined to accept the traditional interpretation of the extant standing hall as the great throne-hall of the palace, though its crude walls, built of lightly baked brick set in gypsum mortar, retain none of the former magnificence. To get an idea of the original appearance of the building we have to turn to the Arab historians who tell of pictorial representations in the throne-hall, along which was one of Khusraw I at the battle of Antioch. It is also from Arab sources that we obtain a description of the silk carpet representing a garden, embroidered with gold thread and sewn with pearls, called Spring of Khusraw, said to have been in the throne hall of Ctesiphon when the city was sacked by the Arabs. Other indications of the rich ornamentation of the palace came from the German excavations, which yielded from the entire palace area mosaic glass cubes, many of them covered with gold. These point to the presence of mosaics on the upper part of the walls, perhaps even in the barrel-vaults, whereas the lower walls appear to have been covered with slabs of multi-coloured marble, of which fragments were found. Lastly the outside as well as the inside of the palace of Ctesiphon, like other Sasanian palaces, had extensive stucco decoration, of which fragments were found in the vicinity of the great hall.

Further indications as to the appearance of the interior of Sasanian palaces can be gained from the excavations of the palace of Bishapur, situated in western Fars, near Kazerun. There the cross-shaped throne-hall had a cupola and sixty-four niches, the stucco frames of which were decorated with meanders, acanthus-leaves and palmettres, all painted in vivid red, yellow and black, like the acanthus-leaves covering the vaulting. The decoration of this hall was strongly influenced by Graeco-Roman prototypes. Such Western influence penetrated Sasanian art in the time of Shapur I [241-272], who brought back seventy thousand Roman prisoners as a result of his campaigns in Syria and of his victory over the Roman emperor Valerian at Edessa. A large number of these prisoners were settled in Iran and furnished the empire with architects, engineers and technicians who were employed in the great undertakings of the Sasanian government, in the building of bridges, dams and roads. One may also assume that the great architectural activity of Shapur attracted artists and craftsmen from the West to seek employment in Iran.

Before the throne-hall other structures had been erected at Bishapur; a court with mosaics of Graeco-Roman derivation and a fire temple. The latter recalls in its plan earlier fire temples, especially the one at Hatra. It consisted of a square main room measuring 14 metres on each side. The room had four doors and was surrounded by corridors in which Ghirshman, the excavator, noted 'an elaborate system of small water conduits.'. [10] Another interesting feature of this temple described by Ghirshman were the bull foreparts of stone with originally supported the wooden beams of the roof. In somewhat cruder form these bull protomes recall the Achaemenid capitals of Persepolis and Susa. They illustrate another conscious reminiscence of earlier prototypes such as we [ p. 197] observed repeatedly in Sasanian art. Temples such as the one discovered by Ghirshman at Bishapur represent a less frequent type of structure associated with the cult of fire than those in which the sacred fire was open to general worship. Such structures consisted merely of an altar over which rose a cupola on four arches. A number of them, called Tchahar Taq, were known even before Vanden Berghe conducted a highly successful investigation of Sasanian fire sanctuaries in the course of which he examined a complex of buildings not far distant from Firuzabad. Here he identified not only the Tchahar Taq, the emplacement of the open public fire, but also the close chamber where the principal fire was preserved, hidden from the eyes of the common worshipper and accessible only to the priests.. [11]

In addition to these sanctuaries of the Zoroastrian religion [which has rightly been termed anti-architectural, since it produced little more than the cupola on arches and the square chamber surrounded by a corridor, there were also churches built in the Sasanian empire. While we cannot discuss these structures here, they should nevertheless be mentioned since the mere fact of the existence of a church, with possible and probable links with the West, may point toward an explanation of many Sasanian elements in later European art and architecture.. [12] [p. 198]