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Relief of Median courtier and tribute bearers
Near Eastern, Iranian, Persian
Achaemenid
550–331 B.C.
Medium/Technique
Limestone
Dimensions
Overall: 45.5 × 77.7 × 15.2 cm (17 15/16 × 30 9/16 × 6 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds by exchange from the Maria Antoinette Evans Fund
Accession Number39.586
CollectionsAncient Egypt, Nubia and the Near East
ClassificationsArchitectural elements – Relief
DescriptionRelief fragment depicting a Median leading two Persians. The second Persian bears two hemispherical bowls as gifts. The Mede and the Persians are distinguished by their hair and beard styles.
ProvenanceFrom the northwest facade of the Apadana staircase, Persepolis. By 1931, Raphael Stora (dealer), Paris and New York [see note]; 1939, by exchange from Raphael Stora to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 13, 1939)
NOTE: This is probably the sculpted marble panel described as "three bearded men, half-length, in low relief" from Persepolis, measuring 46 x 78 cm., lent by Stora to the International Exhibition of Persian Art (Royal Academy of Arts, London, January 7 - February 28, 1931), p. 16. cat. no. 18. Stora may have acquired the relief from Sassoon Frères, Paris, from whom he acquired other Persepolis reliefs that he was offering in 1931. See Lindsay Allen, " 'The Greatest Enterprise': Arthur Upham Pope, Persepolis and Achaemenid Antiquities," in Arthur Upham Pope and a New Survey of Persian Art, ed. Y. Kadoi (2016), p. 146.
NOTE: This is probably the sculpted marble panel described as "three bearded men, half-length, in low relief" from Persepolis, measuring 46 x 78 cm., lent by Stora to the International Exhibition of Persian Art (Royal Academy of Arts, London, January 7 - February 28, 1931), p. 16. cat. no. 18. Stora may have acquired the relief from Sassoon Frères, Paris, from whom he acquired other Persepolis reliefs that he was offering in 1931. See Lindsay Allen, " 'The Greatest Enterprise': Arthur Upham Pope, Persepolis and Achaemenid Antiquities," in Arthur Upham Pope and a New Survey of Persian Art, ed. Y. Kadoi (2016), p. 146.