"Treasures abound – many tents were filled with gold and silver furniture... And the bowls and goblets are made of gold. In his book History, the ancient Greek writer Herodotus describes how during the Greco-Persian War (499-449 BC), Greek soldiers entered the tent of the Persian king and were shocked by unimaginable luxury.
The Paper learned that from May 4, the British Museum will launch "Luxury and Power: From Persia to Ancient Greece", an exhibition that brings together exquisite crafts made of gold, silver and glass described by ancient Greek writers. Whether these luxuries were coveted as objects of authority or condemned as symbols of decline, the beauty of luxury goods shaped the political landscape of Eurasia in the 1st millennium BC (1-1000 BC). Their impact was so profound that it continues into people's attitudes towards luxury today.
Exhibition view of the Panagyurishte Treasure from the Bulgarian National Historical Museum
In the mid-5th century BC, an Athenian nobleman brought back a pair of peacocks from a diplomatic trip – probably a gift from the rulers of Persia. Few people have seen such peculiar birds in Athens, and the city soon fell into a mania for peacocks.
The British Museum's new exhibition, Luxury and Power: From Persia to Ancient Greece, is dedicated to Greek and Persian luxury between the Greco-Persian War in the 5th century BC and the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. For many Greeks, for example, a charming bronze peacock represents the mystery of the East, a decadence that they love and hate, but can't help but be fascinated by. At the same time, in the eyes of the Persians, cute things can build friendships across borders.
However, there was more of a kind of hostility between ancient Greece and Persia. Their rivalry began in the 6th century BC, when the free Greek city-states in Asia Minor fell to the westward expansion of the Persian kingdom, and the struggle between the Greek city-states and the ancient Achaemenid Empire of Persia was considered by the Greeks to be a struggle to establish itself as the West rather than the East.
The exhibition begins with the "look" of the ancient Persians and the Greek god Apollo.
The exhibition opens with a pair of sculptural heads gazing at each other—a bearded, curly-haired ancient Persian and Greek god Apollo—seemingly defining the poles of global history. But the reality is much more complicated, in fact, the Persian figure is not much different from Chatsworth's Apollo. Both came from Cyprus in the 5th century BC and are associated with the temple where Apollo and the Persian god Reshef worshipped together.
Gold bracelet (Treasure of Oxus), Tajikistan, 499-300 BC
The exhibition includes a wide range of exhibits from the Middle East and southeastern Europe from 550 BC to 30 AD, from present-day Afghanistan to Greece. The more than 160 artifacts on display cover more than 500 years of Persian and Greek history, the most beautiful of which is a gold-modeled chariot of four horses carrying a robed official. According to research, robed officials were responsible for collecting tribute from Persian territory to pay tribute to the king, who also often gave luxury goods in return. But rather than an epic, the exhibition explores a story about luxury as a political tool.
British Museum staff put the gold chariot into the display case.
First, the exhibition examines how the Achaemenid court of ancient Persia used valuables as symbols of authority, and in doing so, defined extravagant styles that resonated across Egypt to India. Here, viewers can admire the relief of Anubis made in the Egyptian style by the ancient Persian king Darius I (reigned 521-486 BC). Second, the exhibition explores how Eastern luxuries were introduced into the early democratic Athenian city-state, which claimed to be Persia's old enemy, and how Athens innovated to make these luxuries socially and politically acceptable. Eventually, as Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire and ushered in the Hellenistic age, the two luxury styles gradually merged with the increasing fusion of the Eastern and Western worlds.
Exhibition view
According to ancient Greek historians, represented by Herodotus, the victory of a small Greek army over the mighty Persians was a victory of a disciplined and restrained army over an empire that had declined due to extreme luxury. However, the exhibition does not pay much attention to Herodotus' teachings, but instead uses utensils such as cups as the center of history. For example, used at Persian banquets, the shape is like a gold-encrusted beast's head agate cup (a gold-encrusted onyx cup unearthed in the Tang Dynasty cellar in Hejia Village, Xi'an), which is mostly made of gold and silver, decorated with bulls, griffins and human figures.
Silver gilded griffin beast to cup in Turkey, 5th century BC
However, ancient Athens, filled with proud self-awareness after sending off the mighty Achaemenid army, believed that drinking in a cup of gold and silver horns was vulgar and ostentatious. So the Athenian cup of this period was made of clay, and an aquatic cup from Athens in the 5th century BC shows how potters turned the ornate Persian cup into pottery in the shape of sheep and pigs.
Lion's head shaped clay cup, Italy, 500-470 BC
The exhibition juxtaposes the dazzling luxury of the Achaemenid Persians with the different aesthetic and political aspects of Greece – although a delicate Greek flat ring of gold oak leaves is indeed very luxurious. All this confirms the traditional view that Greek and Persian cultures are opposites. In fact, however, Athens in the 5th century BC was so rich that a huge, gold-covered ivory statue of Athena could be erected. However, the classical style formed at this time rejected the splendor of Persia, simple and unpretentious. Part of the Parthenon frieze in the exhibition depicts young Athenian women holding Persian objects as tribute in a parade of Panathena, but artistically the style of this masterpiece has nothing to do with Persia.
Golden oak corolla, Turkey, c. 350-300 BC
Throughout, the Greeks commented on the Persians, on the one hand, they despised and failed to understand the femininity of Persians, such as the relief of a male Persian ruler reclining under a parasol in the exhibition; On the other hand, there is fear and jealousy. But the luxury of the Persians seemed to be a foil to the self-confidence of the Athenians - on a glass of water, the defeated "Persians" seemed to look aggrieved.
An Athenian drinking cup in the shape of a bearded Persian head. Greece, circa 410-400 BC
However, when Alexander the Great appeared, everything came alive. Born in Macedonia in 356 BC, Alexander unified all of Greece, swept across the Middle East, occupied all of Egypt, flattened the Persian Empire, and established a new Greek Empire from Egypt to Afghanistan. The cultures began to truly merge. For example, Egyptian statues from the 4th century BC, while still looking like pharaonic dynasties, are portraits of Greek rulers.
Oxus Gold Medal, Tajikistan, 5th-4th centuries BC
This Hellenistic era is a fascinating melting pot of cultures. For example, the Panagyurishte Treasure, which is on loan from the Bulgarian National Historical Museum. This group of star exhibits, consisting of eight well-made gold drinkers and a bowl, weighing 6.2 kilograms together, was unearthed in Bulgaria (formerly Thrace) in 1949. It skillfully combines Greek, Persian and local styles in an aesthetic freedom – half-human and half-god cups, and two centaurs dancing on the handle of the Greek amphora, all with a dazzling sheen.
Panagyurishte Treasure, Bulgaria, 400-300 BC
It is a history of intoxication, with rigid classicism blended into the splendor of the "East". In the end, we get an intoxicating prosperity.
Note: The exhibition will last until August 13. This article was compiled from The Guardian, The Telegraph and the British Museum.