Bronzes from Luristan
Riddles of Ancient Iran
IIIe - Ier millennium before our era
4 March - 22 June 2008
150 exceptional pieces from the biggest international collections:
Louvre Museum, British Museum, Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin, Royal Museums of Art and History of Brussels
In the 1920s, singular bronzes, with exuberant and figurative decoration, mainly animal, appeared on the art market from the valleys of Luristan, a region located to the west of the Iranian plateau, near the current city of Kermanshah. These objects aroused significant interest in the West and entered in large numbers in prestigious private and public collections. Archaeological research, carried out in the region in the 1960s and 1970s, made it possible to further identify these bronzes.
Dated from the Bronze Age - IIIe millennium and first half of the IIe millennium BC - and the Iron Age - XIe-VIIe centuries before our era - they reflect the currents of trade which then crossed the Iranian plateau and brought to the population of Luristan, at the crossroads, a certain prosperity. They also testify to a very great metallurgical mastery, particularly in the field of “lost wax casting”, a technique allowing all kinds of anatomical, realistic or imaginary details to be produced with flexibility.
Horse bits, the most famous pieces of this production, take the form of griffins, wild animals or, like a reflection of reality, horses harnessed and sometimes even mounted. On some, a horned character tames monsters faced, grabbing them on the neck, reminiscence, at the end of 1er millennium BC, from the ancient figure of the "master of animals" or "Gilgamesh" from the Mesopotamian epics of IIIe millennium. This same figure is found in the form of tubular bronze elements, standard heads or “idols”.
The profusion of the animal decor, on the bit as on the blades of the ax or the pins, makes the real use of these parts problematic. That they come from funerary contexts, that this civilization has been more nomadic than sedentary, and that no text has been discovered in the region further reinforces the enigmatic aspect of these bronzes with the neatness of the bill.
Luristan press kit (PDF, 3 MB)
