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

Fig. 4. Tray of the Saljuk bronze, Iran flying to the hereafter. Birds meant the souls of the dead in Sogdian art — hence their frequent occurance on ossaria. Siren-birds seem to have occured frequently in early Islamic art in Central Asia; they figure on several metal objects at the Ferghana Museum, e. g. in the middle of a bronze dish and on a jug.

12 A more unusual decorative motif is the figure of the lion on the stand : both body and head are shown very schematically. I do not know of any similarly portrayed animal motif in Islamic art. Sculptural animal figures — notably lions and birds — placed on jugs are well-known in Sasanian and post-Sasanian art.

13 Similar representations occur on early Islamic metal objects, mainly on jugs and candlesticks: thus a 12th century candlestick at the Louvre has anaglyptic sitting lions in two bands and on the rim birds in high relief.

14 A similarly shaped candlestick from North-Persia, dated from the 11 — 12th centuries, from the Harari collection vas exhibited in London in 1931. The difference is that instead of Kufic, Naskhi inscriptions are on it.

15 Kühnel suggests that a bronze candlestick from the 12th century, exhibited in Munich, bearing sculptural lions and birds in its frieze, came from 12 nysaneunoea, r. A.: Op. cit. p. 159, Fig. 16, 17, PI. 192. 13 Migeon, G.: Op. cit. II. p. 29, Fis, 226—227, 14 Migeon, G.: Op. cit. II. 43. Fig. 233, is Persian Art. London, 1931. p. 19,