Ancient Art Lecture 6: Persian Art

Welcome back everyone. Today we are going to talk about the Persian Empire or the Achaemenid Empire. You can see that we are finishing up our Mesopotamia unit. This is the last culture that we'll be looking at in this part of the world. And then we're going to go back in time to Egypt around 3000 BCE. So that's how it'll work in this class. We'll do a geographical location, go through it chronologically, travel to another geographical location, and do that chronologically. Specifically, we're only going to talk about one thing today, which is the sort of capital of the Persian Empire in Persepolis. You can see that in gray are things that we've already studied in this same geographical region. The hunting scene at Masturbanipal, that's the one with the lion. And then the last lecture we talked about the Ishtar Gate, which also had lions. Guess what? There's going to be lions today. So you can see that there's a sort of a through line. Even though these are different kinds of people that are taking over this area, they still are using the same cultural symbols. The Achaemenids, also known as the Persians, begin with Cyrus the Great around 559 BCE. They continue until about 331 BCE when Alexander the Great sweeps in from Macedonia and basically takes over all of the Middle East, Northern India, everything. So an idea that I am going to introduce to you today is the unified world theory. And I'm going to show you a bunch of images, and then I'm going to give you a question at the end, which is pick three of these images or ideas or facts that I shared with you, and use them to explain the unified world theory in your own words. I won't leave you out in the cold. I will talk about the unified world theory. I will show you things. I will say, this is the unified world theory in action. But I want you at the end to pick three things that really underscore what it is to you. Okay, you've seen this map before. And this is basically Mesopotamia. And you can see the highlighted little circle down there, which is Persepolis. And during the 6th century BCE, Cyrus the Great founded this mighty Persian Empire, and it stretched from Egypt to Pakistan. Here's a better view of it. And this is actually the Persian Empire under Darius I. And it was, up until this point, the largest empire the world had ever seen. That is until Alexander the Great. But we'll get to that later. One of the issues that we run into as historians or art historians is that a lot of the information that we have about Persia comes from contemporary Greek sources. Basically, these two cultures were battling it out. They were enemies. And so we really, really know about the Persians because the Greeks wrote about them in their dealings with them. So we have this weird view of the Persians. Much of the information comes from Herodotus, who was the first known historian. And he chronicled the Persian and Greek wars, and he used like a narrative style and first person. Later classical writers also discuss the Persian Empire. Their main focus is relations between Persia and the Greek states. And there's tales of Persian court intrigue, the moral decadence of the Persians, and the unrestrained luxury of the Persians. And when we look at Greek art, we'll actually see how they portray the Persians and their artwork as unflattering savages. So just know that if you read about the Persians, a lot of information out there is biased. I mean, even the name of their greatest city, Persepolis, that is a Greek name for the city of the Persians. I'm going to assume that most of you haven't read Herodotus. So we're going to take a look at this with fresh eyes, not the biased view from the Greeks. So this is called Parsa. That's what the Persians called it. The Greeks called it Persepolis. And it's built in a remote mountainous region of what is modern day Iran. And during the reign of Darius I, it was made the capital of the Persians. Before this, Cyrus the Great, who founded the Persian Empire, had ruled from Pasargidae, which is another city in this area. And I am also most likely mispronouncing that name. Persepolis, or Parsa, was mostly used as a ceremonial center. There's no space for a city around the palace complex. Although during festivals, they would put up tents. And this place was used for celebrations. It was treasury storage. It was a burial complex. It was very isolated. There are several monumental buildings, a few of which we'll talk about today, that were built on a vast artificial stone terrace. There was this double staircase that you can see on the bottom left there, that was wide and shallow enough for horses to climb. And it led from the plains below to the top of the terrace. And at the head of the terrace, visitors passed through the Gate of Xerxes, the gatehouse guarded by, guess what? Enormous lamasses. The palace complex was set on a raised platform that was 40 feet high. This is actually the stairway that goes up to the Apadana, which is another section. So there were stairways on top of the terrace as well. We will discuss this stairwell and the Apadana in more detail later. There's a video I want you to watch. And basically it's a reenactment of someone traveling through this entire complex in order to pay tribute to the king. It would be better if you watched it now, and then you came back to this. But it's fine if you don't, and you want to watch it later. But basically the video shows this man walking up these stairs with like a bowl of berries or something that he's going to present. And you get this entire journey through all these stairwells and into the Gate of All Nations and into another complex and up some more stairs. And finally, he kind of lays prone in front of the king with his offerings, and then he backs out and leaves. So how do we know about that guy's journey? Well, the palace complex is full of all these wall reliefs that show these processions of people bearing all of these gifts like sheep or precious gems or jewels. And these bands that these people are made up of are known as friezes or a frieze, f-r-i-e-z-e. And it represented the 30 different kinds of people from across the Persian Empire that every year would come and pay tribute to the king at this palace in Persepolis. This is much different than what we have already seen. If you look on the left, you have the stele of the victory of Naram-Sin, and he's crushing his enemies. But if you look to the right, and the image of a procession of people coming peacefully with their offerings, you get a glimpse into what is the epitome of the unified world theory, which is people belonging to something larger. In the Persian Empire, their subjects were allowed to worship whatever religion they wanted. They didn't have to follow the same religion as the Persians. They could live however they chose. They just had to pay taxes, and they had to bring tribute to the king. In the end, a unified world theory basically means a greater sense of community amongst conquered people. So the Persians were still militaristic. They still threatened to destroy places. But in exchange for taxes and tribute, you were kind of free to live your lives. So one of your lecture questions is going to be, what is the purpose of the tributary frieze? And I don't mean like to show the unified world theory, but the question is like, why are they lining up like this? What is the point of having them line up so orderly? Is this instructions, like when you show up, this is how you're supposed to do it? Is this in absentia, like what we've seen with the votive figures in early Mesopotamia? Does this show benevolence to the visitors, like if you come here, you're safe? Those are just three ideas, maybe. I mean, you could also think about the lions that we saw in the gate of Ishtar, right? And how they were all lined up, these powerful creatures that were lined up. If none of these ideas strike you, come up with something on your own. I'm interested in what you think is the reason for lining up all these people in a very orderly fashion. In that video of the guy doing a procession, he finally makes it to this kind of final palace, the Apadana. And after traveling through this kind of large courtyard facing the Apadana, there is this set of stairs. And on the set of stairs, there's this relief that shows these warriors. But also on each corner of the warriors, there is a lion attacking kind of a bull. And I would like us to take a closer look at this image, because I think it also goes to underscore the unified world theory. Now, normally I would ask you, let's say we're in class, and I would say, okay, put your heads together and let's figure out why a lion attacking a bull is representative of the unified world theory. But nobody ever gets it right. So I think I've come to find out that I should just tell you why I think this is true. So first of all, keep in mind that this was not a military outpost or fort. This complex was used seasonally for feasts and big celebrations. And that season thing is a part of it. So the lion attacking a bull is actually an astronomical reference. So when you look up at the sky at night, and that's all people did. They didn't have anything else to do at night, so they looked up at the sky. They used the stars to define the seasons. And spring came when the constellation Leo would overtake the constellation Taurus. So the bull would disappear from the night sky, and then the lion would arrive. And when this happened, people knew, oh, spring is coming. Okay, that's the part that nobody ever gets. So of course, if I had said, look at this, tell me what it represents, it would have been almost impossible for you to know about the zodiac sign thing. So that being said, I will ask you, how does the constellation idea represent the unified world theory? This part of the journey is the stairs behind the constellations. And you can see that it's full of these guards. And that's because you're almost to the king. And this is supposed to say like, no funny business. And this is something we haven't really talked about a lot. But we'll see this more in Egypt. But when you see 10 people that look exactly the same, they're actually supposed to represent thousands of people. So if you see like this line of guards, then in your mind, as a tribute, you're thinking, there must be so many armed people in here. There's no way I would try to assassinate a king or whatever. At the top of that final stairwell, you get to this scene, which is Darius and Xerxes receiving tribute. And it's telling you, you're almost here. And you can see that they use hieratic scale, right? Again, the idea of the most important people are the largest people. And the interesting thing is that the king is sitting and then his son is behind him. The king, if he were to stand, would be taller. But because he's sitting, he's the same size. So it's trying to show that they are almost equal. This is kind of a recreation of what the Apadana would have looked like had it not fallen apart. I mean, you look at it now and it's like seven columns or something. But it was humongous. And this grandiosity and luxury was all meant to overwhelm the visitor. I mean, if you go to this place, you have to be thinking like, this must be the rightful ruler. Why else would he possess so much? We will see this again and again in art history. I mean, Versailles is another example of this. Overwhelm the people with your wealth to show that you are divinely chosen to rule. One last thing that I want to mention about inside the Apadana, and I think they talk about this in the video as well, but the language that was spoken was Aramaic, and that was not the language of the Persians. This was a lingua franca, or basically a common language that was used for commerce and governance. The Persians had to learn this language so that everybody across the region would be speaking the same language when it came to communicating with the government. Again, unified world theory, a common language for commerce or government, shows the connectivity between all peoples in this region. There's another video that I want you to watch specifically about the columns. And if you're a fan of Marvel movies like me, I'm a big Marvel MCU dork, these column tops might look familiar to you from the first Avengers movie. Sorry, I digress. Another important building in Persepolis is the Hall of 100 Columns, and it's the throne hall of Xerxes. So there was the Apadana, where the tributes would come and give their gifts, but then there was this more official place, and it consisted of a single gigantic chamber. This area right here is known as a portico, and it's like an entryway, or a fancy way of saying front porch. The portico itself was 183 feet long, and it was 52 feet deep, and it was sustained by 16 pillars that were about 33 feet high, and they were arranged in two rows of eight. And then you walk into the throne hall, and that is like 51,000 square feet, and there are equal distances between 100 columns, and they're each 35 feet high, and they're arranged in 10 rows of 10, and every pillar is nearly 20 feet from each other. So it must have been simultaneously vast and packed with stuff. To get to the throne hall, you had to pass through these gates, and these gates had friezes on them, and they depicted images of the king in combat with monsters, or the king receiving military envoys. So this is like the military version of the procession or tribute. Another thing you might have seen when going to visit the king is this pillar that had satraps. Satraps were provincial governors, and they were the ones that would enforce taxation and make sure that there was no rebellion. And oftentimes they would be family members of the royal family, but there's a reason that they are standing like this. So you have these three rows of people with their arms up, and then at the top of all these rows is the king sitting on his throne. And another question for you is, why? What is the point of these people standing like this in these rows underneath the king? Okay, you've made it. Now one final question will be, name any three ideas, images, or facts that reinforce the idea of unified world theory in this lecture that we had today.