Idol: two facing ibexes
Cast in lost-wax bronze, this mysterious object is made up of two face-to-face ibexes, standing on their hind legs, resting on a ring. A second ring is formed by their forelegs which come together.
It comes from Luristan, a region covered by many mountain ranges extending to the west of Iran. Its technical quality and its exceptional stylization make it a characteristic object of the production of bronzes at the dawn of the Ier millennium BC. It comes from one of the tombs of a civilization that has remained mysterious because it does not know writing. Its use is uncertain: ornament, object of worship, talisman?
The Luristan civilization of the time practiced horse breeding and traded with neighboring Mesopotamia. We detect its influence through the echo of the motif of the tree of life flanked by two confronting animals. The rings between the legs of the ibexes may have served as a support for a plant branch.
Cartel:
Idol: two facing ibexes
1150-900 BC, Iran, Luristan
Bronze
H.12,4 cm x W.10,8 cm x D.1,7 cm
MC 7651
Gift of the Society of Friends of the Cernuschi Museum, 1930
Photo credit :
© Paris Museums / Cernuschi Museum
 Idol (Used name), -1150. Bronze. Cernuschi Museum, Museum of Asian Arts of the City of Paris. |
 Idol (Used name), -1150. Bronze. Cernuschi Museum, Museum of Asian Arts of the City of Paris. |
