Iranians and Greeks in South Russia - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian ...

200 THE POLYCHROME STYLE AND
that is, the back of the horned lion-grifRn, is adorned with realistic
figures of beasts—two tigers turned to the left, with reverted heads,
two fishes and two snakes (?). The back of the vase and the handle
each consist of two superposed foreparts of fantastic animals. The
back shows two superposed heads : the head of a lion-grifiin with
horns in the form of two fishes, heraldically arranged ; and another,
more geometrical head of the same, with enormous eyes, ears and
horns. The hindlegs of the vase have the form of two geometrized
human figures. The handle consists of a tiger's head issuing from
the mouth of the lion-griffin's head which constitutes the upper part
of the back of the vase : the mouth of this tiger's head holds the
lower part of the handle—the forepart of a dragon with two legs in
the form of human legs with two large eyes. The whole surface of
the vase is covered with a net of minute geometric ornaments in the
form of spirals and maeanders.
The vase is truly a strange combination, a rich symphony of motives
of the animal style. But to us, who have studied the Scythian animal
style, there is nothing in it unfamiliar. Objects in the form of beasts'
heads are common in Scythia : common
also the geometrization of
the heads, the tendency to cover the surface of the objects with
figures of other animals, the predilection for the symbolic animals
of the Assyro-BabyIonian repertory, the idea of giving the parts of
an animal the form of other animals (compare the fishes on our vase
with the fishes which make the wings of the fantastic creatures on
the scabbards from Kelermes and Melgunov's barrow, pi. VHI, 2),
the use of parts of the body for separate ornaments (the wings on the
Maikop belt, pi. XXV, i ; compare the Chinese vase, of the same
type and time as Mrs. Meyer's, in a Japanese collection, Miinsterberg,
ii, p. 132, fig. 203) ; and so forth.
I would draw attention to one more feature of the Chinese animal
style, not represented in the New York vase, but common both on
Chinese vases of the Chu dynasty and in the Scythian animal style.
I refer to the combination of floral and animal motives, that is, the
treatment of the extremities of animal and parts of animals as quasifloral
patterns, often combined with eagles' beaks and eyes.
These striking coincidences between the Scythian and the Chinese
animal style cannot be accidental. The fact that motives borrowed
from Assyro-Babylonian art are paramount in both speaks for itself.
I have not the slightest doubt that both countries received the animal
style from a common source : I mean Iranian Central Asia. The
Chinese adopted the elements of this style, dealt with them freely,
in accordance with their artistic temperament, and formed a new