Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 8. (Budapest, 1965)
HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM — MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Ferenczy, László: A Saljuk bronze from Iran. A present from Sir Aurel Stein
those on our bronze, to be of East-Iranian and Khurasanian origin. Animal figures of the Saljuk Period are characteristically schematic and they clearly show post-Sasanian influence. It is characteristic of all the examples mentioned that both bird and lion figures occur together. It could not have been chance that placed these two animals together on these objects. It is obvious that their juxtaposition had symbolic meaning. In his essay on the Wade Cup, Ettinghausen called attention to the fact that lion figures in Islamic art had a strong solar meaning while Sphinxes had replaced bird representations. The birds as well meant good luck. 24 The Stein bronze differs from the above mentioned examples in the combination of the siren-bird and the lion, as well as in the strangely schematic, vague representation of the latter. This may be explained best by remembering Islam's prohibition against representing living creatures. In reviewing the combination of siren-bird and lion we must mention a recumbent lion figure of the 11th century in the former Bobrinsky collection, which has a siren-bird engraved on the fore- and hind-feet. The figure itself shows the characteristic features of the Saljuk period: the body is in profile, while the head is en face. 25 At the Hermitage there is a silver vase from Tobolsk with three medallions at the centre: in one there is a siren-bird, in the next a sitting lion, in the third an ibex. 26 In connection with the stand of our bronze I want to mention a faience candlestick with a semispherical base and a cylindrical top from Gurgan, now in the collection of A. U. Pope. This reminds me most of the upper part of our stand. It represents the earliest example of the Rayy-Sawa style, of 24 Ettinghausen, R.: The „Wade cup" in the Cleveland Museum of Art, its origin and decorations. Ars Orientalis, Vol. 2. 1957. p. 349. 25 Sarre, F.: Op. cit. Pl. 152/a. 26 Smirnoff: Argenterie orientale. Petrograd, 1909. Pl, 127,
