Description
Low relief with the upper bodies of two tribute bearers facing right. The better preserved figure to the left carries on his left (far) shoulder a tray with a cloth covering the mounded tribute on it. His head is covered by a layered cloth ending in a "tail"; and a kerchief, also crisply layered, is tucked into the headcloth and covers his chin and hangs over his chest. A row of curls and closely combed bands appears at the top of his forehead. The figure to the right would have had his arms extended in front of his chest to hold an object. His head is covered by a helmet (?) with the same treatment of hair on his forehead. A belt and loose sash encircle his waist, with the top of a sword visible.
Bibliography
P. Ackerman, Guide to the Exhibition of Persian Art, 2. ed. (New York, 1940), 306, no. 10.
The Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection of Harvard University, Handbook of the Collection (Washington, D.C., 1946), 21, no. 18, pl. I.
The Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Harvard University (Washington, D.C., 1955), 9, no. 2, pl. 2.
G. M. A. Richter, Catalogue of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Dumbarton Oaks Catalogues (Cambridge, 1956), 2,3, no. 2, pl. Ib.
Handbook of the Byzantine Collection (Washington, D.C., 1967), 1, no. 2.
A. Kirin, J. N. Carder, and R. S. Nelson, Sacred Art, Secular Context: Objects of Art from the Byzantine Collection of Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., Accompanied by American Paintings from the Collection of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, ed. A. Kirin, exhibition catalogue, Georgia Museum of Art, (Athens, Ga., 2005), 46-47, fig. 9.
Exhibition History
New York, Iranian Institute, "Six Thousand Years of Persian Art," April 24, 1940 - June 1940.
Dumbarton Oaks, "The Collector's Microbe: Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss and the Dumbarton Oaks Collection," Apr. 9 - Nov. 9, 2008.
Acquisition History
From the Palace of Xerxes at Persepolis, Iran.
M. and R. Stora Gallery, Paris; purchased from Stora Gallery by Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, Washington, D.C., March 1931.
Transferred to Harvard University, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Byzantine Collection, Washington, D.C., November 1940.
