Then it is on to eating and drinking, from spectacular gold and silver rhytons (drinking horns), to silver and glass dishes that would, we’re told, have held meals of tastes still recognisable Persian today – one dinner was of sweet grape jelly, candied turnips, capers and radishes with salt, and pistachio nuts.
The sweep of life is completed in the next room, where spectacular gold jewellery, most from funerary contexts, competes with stone carving for the claim of the ultimate Persian art. One gold earring – quite possibly to be worn by a man, the carvings suggest – is a fist-sized, astonishingly intricate, assemblage of dozens of rings and spirals, set inside each other like a Russian doll. Just looking at it made my earlobes ache.
So we’ve done ceremony and royalty, we’ve done everyday life, we’ve done death. Yet there’s something missing – the Persians themselves. There’s only a few of King of Kings and a handful of satraps. No children; no women; no labouring peasants. There’s no human stories – not even myths – and no Tutenkhamen-style tombs with all their pathetic human interest.
But this, it seems, is not the fault of the curators. The Persians themselves are to blame. They were great warriors, great administrators and great diplomats. But for their place in posterity, they relied on art and wealth. Their society didn’t cultivate a Herodotus; their kings failed to ensure their tombs would not be robbed soon after their deaths. They’ve left us wonderful things, but not wonderful stories. Unless those are rediscovered, the Persians, even with this effort on their behalf, are likely to remain shadowy boogeymen.
The International Herald Tribune was not impressed, while the Telegraph liked the show, but not the staging.. The Guardian's review of the exhibition is, however, nice about it, but nasty about the Persians, which drew an angry Iranian response. Here's another Iranian view of the "controversy" following the opening of the exhibition.
The exhibition continues until January 8. It is, as some of these reviews note, seriously cramped. Try to pick a quiet time; on a weekday soon after the museum opens is probably a good bet.
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Article comments
1 - Tan The Man
Was there a time when museums traveled around the world to showcase to local communitues?
2 - Victor Plenty
It depends on what you mean by "museum," I suppose.
3 - Thomas W. Briggs
The Persia show remains uncontrovertibly spectacular even for being crammed into a grossly inadequate space. But unlike, say, the last couple of comprehensive Byzantine Empire shows in New York, this exhibition doesn't leave the non-expert viewer with much of a bettered education at all. The badly written and uneven catalogue does an even worse job -- all of early Persian history in four or so pages! Don't miss the truly snotty introduction in (untranslated) French. -- Thomas W. Briggs, Fort Worth, Texas
4 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Very good piece, Natalie.
There is a fellow I know in J-lem who heads a league of Iranian secularists. He spoke at the Root & Branch Association English Lecture Series, where I'm the MC.
I remember him mentioning that the Iranians have only contempt for Alexander of Macedon, even to this day.
I can suggest a source for stories that touch on Persia - the Hebrew Bible. Particularly the Book of Esther. I know it ain't much, but it is a start.