Ancient Near Eastern Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v ...

the decorated bronze vessel: by hammering,
repousse, and chasing. A most
impressive example of the hammering
technique is the lovely silver figurine of
an antelope (fig. 61), which is identified
here on the basis of stylistic and iconographic
traits as the creation of a Proto-
Elamite master of the third millennium
B.C. Both the gazelle and the contemporary
kneeling silver bull (see fig. 23) were
made from separate pieces of silver hammered
into shape; each piece was then
fitted into the other and finally joined by
silver solder.
By the fourth millennium B.C., lost-wax,
as well as open- and bivalve-mold casting
had been developed. In the ingenious
lost-wax process the desired image
is sculpted in wax, which is then surrounded
with a clay investment that hardens
into a mold when baked. The mold
has a negative space, corresponding to
the burnt-wax image, into which is poured
molten metal that hardens into the shape
of the original wax model. The thirdmillennium
B.C. ibex stand (fig. 60),
of copper alloyed with arsenic, is among
the earliest examples of the more complex
technique of lost-wax casting around
a central ceramic core.
A handsome silver plate (fig. 63), a
product of the last part of the Sasanian
period (fifth to early sixth century A.D.),
combines the metalworking techniques
described above with others. The plate
itself was hammered into its final shape
from a cast ingot. The low-relief decoration
was formed by carving away the
background close to the figures, while
the higher relief of the bodies of the king,
his horse, and the rams was made from
separate cast or hammered pieces that
were crimped into place. The linear details
were either chased into the silver or
engraved-a process of cutting instead
of pushing away strips of metal. A ring
base was attached with solder to the
bottom of the plate. Except for the king's
face and hands, all the decoration is
gilded with an amalgam of gold and
mercury. Niello, a shiny black, hard compound
of silver and sulphur, accents the
king's quiver and bow, and the rams'
horns, tails, and hooves. H.P.
64
46