On view
Ancient Mediterranean Art
Cupbearer, relief from the Palace of Xerxes I,
486–465 BCE
Persian
Achaemenid Persian Period, ca. 550–330 BCE
y1949-115
This relief depicts a bearded man carrying a cup in the palm of each of his hands as he steps up to an altar. Dressed in a knee-length tunic that is belted at the waist, he also wears a hat on his head; small curls poke out from under the fabric. The relief was originally part of a much larger sculptural frieze that depicted the king, gods, archers, and attendants undertaking various tasks. These reliefs were displayed throughout a palace at Persepolis in present-day Iran that was built by Xerxes I, who ruled from about 486 to 465 BCE. While no known photograph depicts this relief in situ, and a photo from 1933 shows it already removed, research on the corpus of these reliefs suggests that this example was originally positioned along the southernmost end of the facade of the palace’s western stairs. The relief that was originally to its right depicts two tribute bearers, and is now at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC.
Information
Title
Cupbearer, relief from the Palace of Xerxes I
Dates
486–465 BCE
Medium
Limestone
Dimensions
58.5 x 28.5 x 10.5 cm (23 1/16 x 11 1/4 x 4 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, gift of Gordon McCormick, Class of 1917
Object Number
y1949-115
Place Made
Iran, Persepolis
Culture
Period
Materials
Subject
Removed from the Palace of Xerxes by 1933; in the collection of Paul J. Sachs, Cambridge until June 1945; received on consignment by Joseph Brummer, New York in July 1945; purchased by the Museum in 1949 at the Parke Bernet sale, 34, no. 138.
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Donald N. Wilber, "A relief from Persepolis", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 9, no. 2 (1950): p. 2-3.
, p. 2-3; cover illus. - Frances Follin Jones, "The Princeton Art Museum: antiquities received in recent years", Archaeology 7, no. 4 (Dec., 1954): p. 237-243., p. 239
- F. F. Jones and R. Goldberg, Ancient art in the Art Museum: Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1960)., p. 22; p. 23 (illus.)
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 100 (illus.)
