In 1931 this Museum and The University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania cosponsored an archaeological expedition to the site of Damghan in Persia (present-day Iran). The excavations brought to light a rich deposit of structural remains built during the Sasanian dynasty (226-641 CE). Among the structures uncovered was a hypostyle hall that led to a reception room. Using evidence from known Sasanian structures in other parts of Iran, the portal of this hall, with its great cylindrical columns and the arches they support, is here re-erected to serve as the monumental entrance to the Museum's collections of Asian art. Where decorative stucco elements were missing, reproductions were made from those salvaged.
All of the stucco plaques seen here are characteristic of Sasanian decoration. Some show boars' heads in circles of dots; others, female heads in high relief; while others contain conventionalized leaf-floral squares. The drinking-stag plaques are unusual, however, as are the larger lions' heads in the round. The diamond-and-palmette pattern of the great column bases has been similarly used in other parts of Persia, while the treatment of the column capitals and the rope-leaf borders of the arches are wholly Sasanian in character.
This portal was initially dated 241-272 CE, but later researches have led scholars to consider it mid-sixth century.
This gallery introduces the arts of ancient Persia (present-day Iran) and the rich cultural and aesthetic cross-fertilization that occurred along the trade routes that stretched from China in the East to Italy in the West. Featured are textiles, metalwork, and a variety of ceramic forms, including striking series of mosaics inset into the walls The wall panels in this room were created during the Safavid dynasty (1501–1722). They are said to have come from a Sufi Muslim monastery that was located in the city of Isfahan, then the capital city of Persia. The panels, with their alternating palmette and star motifs, are composed of myriad pieces of ceramic tile in which mirror-black, mingled with various shades of faun and umber, predominates. They are set into a background of brilliant turquoise, a color for which sixteenth-century Persian tilemakers were renowned.
A pair of spandrels thought to be from the Royal Bazaar at Isfahan flank the entryway to the neighboring Pillared Temple Hall.
Another tile recovered from Isfahan is in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania..
This cubiculum (small room) was originally part of a larger residential complex (manzil) built in the early seventeenth century near Isfahan, Iran, then the capital of the Safavid Empire. Since it was acquired by the Museum in 1930, the cubiculum has been associated with the patronage of the Safavid ruler Shah ‘Abbas I (reigned 1587–1629), but recent research suggests it might equally have come from one of the scores of houses in and around Isfahan built by members of Shah ‘Abbas’s court. Many of these mansions are no longer standing, a result of the Afghan invasion of Isfahan in 1722 and centuries of neglect. Some were even destroyed by royal command so that the raw materials could be used for new architectural projects. The Museum’s cubiculum is significant not only for what it tells us about this important group of buildings but also because it is the only known example of seventeenth-century Safavid domestic architecture outside Iran.
The elaborate stucco projections covering the cubiculum’s ceiling and the vault of its antechamber are known as muqarnas. This honeycomb-like structure actually hangs from and hides an underlying, supporting framework. Geometric, floral, and animal forms embellish the smooth surface of the muqarnas. In the antechamber, the intricate designs, which include scrolling arabesques and images of lions and birds, were carved in a thin layer of moist stucco. Plaster-carving, known in Persian as gachbori, was combined with painted decoration in the cubiculum, producing a kaleidoscope of colors and patterns. The niches below the ceiling were used to display ceramic and glass bottles. Archival records indicate that the original walls of the cubiculum were also once adorned with Persian inscriptions, probably poetic in content.
