Catalogue - Metropolitan Museum of Art

122
136 (Color plate 25)
Cheekpieces of horses' bridles were often
of wood or staghorn, with terminals
carved to resemble the heads of fantastic
animals. At one end of this piece is a
creature with feline fangs and the horns
and ears of a mountain goat, and at
the other appears a bird of prey with an
exaggeratedly curved beak and a curled
crest.
Cheekpiece decorated with heads. Wood,
length 18 cm. (7/, in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th-4th century B.C. Altai,
Pazyryk, kurgan 3. Excavations of S. I.
Rudenko, 1948. Hermitage, 1685/109.
Rudenko, Kultura Gornogo Altaya,
pl. LVI, 3.
137
Fantastic bird's head, from a bridle frontlet.
Wood, leather, and gold, height 15 cm.
(55/1 6 in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th-4th century B.C. Altai,
Pazyryk, kurgan 3. Excavations of S. I.
Rudenko, 1948. Hermitage, 1685/396.
Rudenko, Kultura Gornogo Altaya,
pl. LXXII, 1.
137
i.
138
138
Griffin's head, from a bridle frontlet. Wood,
leather, and gold, height 21.5 cm. (8Y in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th-4th century B.C. Altai,
Pazyryk, kurgan 3. Excavations of S. I.
Rudenko, 1948. Hermitage, 1685/397.
Rudenko, Kultura Gornogo Altaya,
pl. LXXII, 2.
139
Mountain ram, harness plaque. Wood and
leather, height 10.4 cm. (41/s in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th-4th century B.C. Altai,
Pazyryk, kurgan 3. Excavations of S. I.
Rudenko, 1948. Hermitage, 1685/151.
Rudenko, Kultura Gornogo Altaya, pi. LI.
140 (Color plate 25)
At first glance, the ornament on this
plaque seems to be purely geometrical, but
on closer examination it turns out to
consist of two elks' heads facing outward.
Their stylization into sweeping curves
emphasized by parallel incised lines results
in a complex, highly pleasing pattern.
Elks' heads, saddle plaque. Horn, length
13 cm. (51/s in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th-4th century B.C. Altai,
Pazyryk, kurgan 3. Excavations of S. I.
Rudenko, 1947. Hermitage, 1685/258.
Rudenko, Kultura Gornogo Altaya,
pi. XVIII, 1.
141
Stylized tiger's face, saddle plaque. Horn,
length 12.5 cm. (47/% in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th-4th century B.C. Altai,
Pazyryk, kurgan 3. Excavations of S. I.
Rudenko, 1948. Hermitage, 1685/262.
Rudenko, Kultura Gornogo Altaya,
P1. XVIII, 2.
142
This cauldron is unusual in design and
shape. The three separate legs are in the
form of the foreparts of rams and the
feet of camels.
Three-legged cauldron with sculptured
heads of rams on the legs. Bronze, height
62 cm. (243/ in.).
Altai nomadic, 5th-3rd centuries B.C.
Kargalinka river near Alma-Ata. Chance
find, 1893. Hermitage, 1654/1.
Smirnova, Domansky, Drevnee iskusstvo,
p. 176, pi. 68.
139