Week Three Art Post

               

              This piece of art from 1350-800 B.C. and is called a tray with miniature animals and vessels, it was from Iran in the Iron Age I-II. The sculpture is made of clay and it is 6.5 centimeters in hieght, and 23.1 centimeters wide, with a 14.8 centimeter diameter.

My first reaction when I saw this piece of art was how it has to do with the wildlife of animals. The types of animals that I see is African native animals. The snouts on the animals made me think that they are lions. I also see a third type of animal  which the head is located on the side of the tray.  The body of the third animal that I mentioned looks like is the whole tray and the legs look like they are part of the tray as well. The color of this tray makes me think that they are in a dry dirt dessert since it is brown and white. For that reason I feel like these animals have pots almost like they have water in them and the lions are very thirsty. The animal on the far looks bigger so in my opinion it looks like a male while the animal closest to the camera looks much smaller and looks like a female. 

                I think this tray was used for many reasons including a plate, or a place to set small tools. It could be a plate that someone of high importance ate off of, like a king or tribe leader. I think that someone higher up would have been the one to eat off of this because it is so well done and probably like what we view china dishes as today. And the pot like things, on the edge of the sculpture could be used to hold side dishes or they could have been used as cups for liquids. It also shows that it could have been used by someone of a leadership role because the animals that are touching the small pots almost look like bulls guarding the cup. This would resemble power and strength because this animal is seen as strong and fierce, so it would be like how kings and royalty have used lions as a symbol of power but with a bull.

                The composition of this art piece is fairly simple. All three of the animals are facing one direction. The animals and the pots are all placed on one side of the sculpture, leaving the other side just flat and bare.

                The medium of this piece was said to be made out of clay. And the color is just a brownish white, which makes sense with the color in the animals and the theme they are trying to portray.

The style is unique in that the animals were made to seem as though they are guarding the pots or some kind of entrance of the tray.

                The line of this piece is interesting; the main part of the piece is curved with a dip in the middle, as if to hold food on it.

                The texture looks smooth and bumpy in certain areas. The top of the animals, the top of the tray, and sides of the pots are all made smooth by the sculptor. The sides of the dish and the feet it has to stand on look more rough and bumpy, which was probably done on purpose to add texture and a different look to the piece.

                For the proportion one of the animals looks smaller than the other, but I am not sure if this is just due to the camera angle or if it is actually like that. Also the animals are way smaller than the pots, and to me the animals look like bulls which are very large compared to most pots we have today, so maybe the sculptor was trying to show the large size of these pots. Or it could be to show that it is designed to be a grand entrance of some sort, because usually entrances are distinguished with pillars or tall statues or something.

                Overall, I find this piece interesting due to being so small, so expensive, so old, and the significance it may hold to other cultures.