Colossal statue of Shapur I
The colossal statue of the Sasanian great king Shapur I (240-272 AD) is located in a natural, inaccessible cave , the so-called Shapur cave . This is located in the south of today's Iran , approx. 6 km from the ancient city of Bishapur .
With its height of about 6.70 m and a shoulder width of more than 2 m, the colossal statue of Shapur I is, next to the rock reliefs, the most impressive work of the Sasanid period .
Features of the colossal statue
_241_AD_%E2%80%93_272_AD.jpg)
The monumental sculpture is carved from a stalagmite grown on the spot and is located 35 m from the cave entrance, on the fourth of a total of five terraces, which is 3.4 m below the level of the cave entrance.
The head and trunk of the sculpture are relatively well preserved, while large parts of the arms and legs are almost entirely missing. The colossal statue is no longer exactly in its original location. Presumably an earthquake caused the statue to fall between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was erected again around the middle of the twentieth century on two concrete columns reinforced with iron bars.
The sculptural sculpture depicts a male figure with strikingly strong and broad shoulders. It is equally valuable on all sides, rich in detail and carved with great care. The head of the colossal statue is symmetrical in every detail. The statue wears a crown with four pinnacles. While a large part of the front step pinnacle is missing, the sides and those on the back are relatively well preserved. A wide diadem closes the crown at the lower edge. The two bands of the diadem, which fall heavily over the back to the waist, widen from top to bottom and are criss-crossed by around twenty horizontal, parallel grooves.
The hair bulges out beneath the diadem. They have a high degree of plasticity. The mass of hair on the left side of the sculpture is well preserved, while the ends of the strands on the right side are broken off.
The sculpture's left hand, which no longer exists, must once have rested on the sword hilt. The right arm broke off just below the armpit. The badly weathered right hand is on the hip.
The robe of the colossal statue is in three parts and consists of an undershirt, pants and an upper garment. A semi-circular line above the necklace indicates the undershirt made of the finest material, of which only a small part is visible. It looks wrinkle-free and seems almost transparent.
The upper garment of the sculpture lies close to the body. The skin-tight cut accentuates the ruler's shoulders, upper arms and chest. What is striking about the fabric of the upper garment are the three-dimensional shapes that resemble flames licking downwards. They are of different lengths, differently designed and arranged irregularly. The upper garment is held tightly together at the waist by a belt, while a second belt loosely wrapped around the hips is used to fasten the sword scabbard. Both belts are tied with a bow, the broad, cross-ribbed ends of which hang down.
The small remnant of the left thigh suggests that the sculpture wore pleated trousers. The fact that the trousers of the colossal statue reached down to the floor are evidenced by the crease marks that run around the legs at a distance from the feet of the sculpture. It seems obvious that the sculptor of the colossal statue preferred this trouser length and width not only for aesthetic reasons, but that it should also serve to stabilize, that is, to enlarge the standing area and lower the center of gravity of the colossal statue, which weighs tons.
The two feet of the sculpture are slightly apart, the left foot is a little further forward than the right. The original shoes of the colossal statue are in varying degrees of preservation today. The right shoe is largely destroyed. The left shoe is practically undamaged and has a round toe. The wide, split-length shoelaces wind their way across the floor in an S-shape.
There are three types of jewelry on the colossal statue : a necklace , earrings made from large pearls, and a bangle on the right wrist. Despite the severe damage, it can be determined that the visible part of the necklace of the colossal statue consists of about fifteen large, round cut stones, which lie a little below the base of the neck in a semicircular arc on the chest and increase in circumference towards the center . The earrings of the Schapur statue are spherical and exceed the size of the earlobes. It is slightly damaged on the right, while only a hemisphere is preserved on the left.
Identification of the colossal statue and the original shape of the crown
In the Sasanid era, each great king had his own crown, which was designed when he took office. The Sasanid crowns differ primarily in their shape, the details of which were subject to strict rules. For the identification of the representations of the Sassanid great kings, the most important clue is therefore the shape of the crown, which changed from ruler to ruler.
The crown of the colossal statue today consists of two parts: a diadem and the step pewter part. Due to the shape of the crown and based on art-historical considerations, the sculpture can be clearly identified as Shapur I, the second Sassanid great king.
Shapur I does not wear a stepped pinnacle crown in all of his portraits; however, he is never shown with a stepped pinnacle crown without corymbos . Now the question arises whether a corymbos originally rose on the crown of the colossal statue.
The existence of a hole drilled inside the stepped battlement on the top of the head suggests that the crown of the colossal statue originally had a corymbos that was not made of stone but of metal. The hole drilled in the stone can only have served to mortise the korymbos. Calculations showed that the lost corymbos of the colossal statue originally had a height of about 1.5 and a width of about 1 m and even with a very thin wall it weighed more than a ton.
Hairstyle as a dating criterion
The colossal statue of Shapur I is an extraordinary monument that was executed during the reign of this great king (240–272 AD).
In the early days of Sasanian visual art (224–309 AD) a continuous development of the style can be observed, which is most noticeably manifested in the change in hairstyle . In many cases, the hairstyle is therefore an important criterion for dating the early Sasanid reliefs.
The hairstyle of the colossal statue consists of four rows of clearly separated, superimposed, wavy strands that protrude from below the diadem and lie symmetrically on the shoulders. Shapur I wears exactly the same hairstyle on his rock reliefs, which were created after AD 260. Based on details of the hairstyle, the colossal statue of Shapur I by G. Reza Garosi was dated to the second half of the 1960s of the third century AD.
Sculptor of the Colossal Statue
The anonymous creator of the colossal statue of Shapur I can be considered one of the greatest ancient sculptors of the Near East. That he succeeded in completing the sculpture is certain. According to reports from the post-Asian period, the sculpture, which weighed several tons, stood on its feet until at least the 14th century. It cannot be determined whether Apasa, who is celebrated as an outstanding sculptor by the column inscription in Bishapur, bore the main responsibility for the execution of the colossal statue of Shapur I.
state of research
Although the grotto with the colossal round sculpture of Shapur I has been known in the west since at least 1811, it took up little space in specialist literature until recently. She was mentioned by Roman Ghirshman , Kurt Erdmann and Georgina Herrmann, among others . The first comprehensive study of the cave and the colossal statue was made by G. Reza Garosi.
Web links
- G. Reza Garosi: colossal statue Schapurs I. . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica (English, including references)
literature
- Roman Ghirshman : Iran. Parthians and Sasanids (= Universe of Art . Vol. 3). CH Beck, Munich 1962.
- Kurt Erdmann : The art of Iran at the time of the Sasanids. Revised new edition. Kupferberg, Mainz 1969.
- Georgina Herrmann: The rebirth of Persia. Translated from English by Harry Zeise. License issue. European Education Association Verl.-GmbH et al., Stuttgart 1975.
- G. Reza Garosi: The colossal statue of Šāpūrs I in the context of Sasanid sculpture. von Zabern, Mainz 2009, ISBN 978-3-8053-4112-7 .