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拍品專文
This remarkable ewer has roundels on the side which show a greater mastery of the art of low relief figural sculpture than any other vessel of this period. The elegance of line and the treatment of perspective are the equal or better than anything in metal that was produced under the Sassanians. While the form undoubtedly derives from Sassanian silver ewers, the height of the upper terminal of the handle, and the shape of the mouth link it conclusively to pieces made in the Islamic period.
The form is identical, particularly in the unusual treatment of the mouth which originally had a cover, to a brass ewer in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (Masterpieces of Islamic Art in the Hermitage Museum, Kuwait, 1990, no.2, p.22; Piotrovsky, Mikhail B. and Vreize, John (ed.): Earthly beauty, heavenly art, no.200, p.227). The only difference is that the square section trough spout here is left open. Even the two birds, which form the major design on the St. Petersburg ewer, appear here in the roundel flanking the handle. Similarly conceived in outline, they still have greater solidity of form. But it is the other three roundels which really show the skill of the craftsman; the treatment of the decoration here is fully sculptural. The foreshortening of the upper leg of the seated male figure, the turning of the cow to scratch her head with her hoof, and the twisting of the body of the pursued deer are all remarkably close to classical Roman reliefs. Even in the thumbpiece the metalworker cannot resist creating another unusual form, a ram's head which is unparalelled in any other Islamic ewer.
The form is identical, particularly in the unusual treatment of the mouth which originally had a cover, to a brass ewer in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (Masterpieces of Islamic Art in the Hermitage Museum, Kuwait, 1990, no.2, p.22; Piotrovsky, Mikhail B. and Vreize, John (ed.): Earthly beauty, heavenly art, no.200, p.227). The only difference is that the square section trough spout here is left open. Even the two birds, which form the major design on the St. Petersburg ewer, appear here in the roundel flanking the handle. Similarly conceived in outline, they still have greater solidity of form. But it is the other three roundels which really show the skill of the craftsman; the treatment of the decoration here is fully sculptural. The foreshortening of the upper leg of the seated male figure, the turning of the cow to scratch her head with her hoof, and the twisting of the body of the pursued deer are all remarkably close to classical Roman reliefs. Even in the thumbpiece the metalworker cannot resist creating another unusual form, a ram's head which is unparalelled in any other Islamic ewer.