Rhyton with the Protome of a Desert Lynx Catching a Fowl. Iran, late 2nd- 1st century B.C.E. Gilded silver. The item carries the number 30 in the museum collection. Miho Museum, Japan.
This stunning rhyton or drinking horn depicts the protome (forepart) of a desert lynx (caracal cat, Felis caracal) clutching a desperate cockerel in his paws. The rhyton is made in two major parts : the horn and separately manufactured protome of the lynx and bird. The slender horn rises to an outturned rim. A spout opens at the breast of the straining bird. The relentless intensity of the predator and the terror of his victim are brilliantly conveyed. The artist vividly alluded to motion by having the cat turn slightly to the right, the direction in which the bird tries to escape. Gilding is used to visually separate the animals. On the lynx,the gilding is limited to the eyes, inner ears, and collar, whereas the bird is completely gilded.
From a typological point of view, the idea of a feline catching or devouring his victim is based on an Achaemenid concept. An Eastern context for the rhyton is further corroborated by the lynx, because the examples with this animal known to date are almost exclusively linked to the Hellenized Near East. The style, however, follows Greek standards, without the slightest reference to Achaemenid art, making it a telling example of the craftsmanship from the Hellenized Near East.
Rhyta enjoyed a long history in ancient West Asia and were especially popular in the Achaemenid period (mid-6th-third quarter 4th century B.C.E.). Lynx rhyta, however, were entirely unknown in the pre-Hellenistic Near Eastern repertoire. As in the case of all other known examples, the cats in this and a second lynx rhyton in the Shumei collection (SF3.034) wear a collar around the neck, which shows them to be tamed animals, possibly ones used for hunting by the Eastern nobility. Given the presence of ivy under the rim and a lavish spray of vine around the animal's neck in the second Shumei lynx rhyton-a motif also found on a lynx rhyton in New York-an even more specific background should be considered.
Another similar Lynx rhyton from Iran, with the number 29 in the museum collection. Gilded silver. 1st century B.C.E. Miho Museum, Japan.
Not only does the lynx closely resemble a panther, the holy animal of Dionysos, the Greek God of wine, the ivy was likewise a Dionysian symbol. According to ancient tradition, the symposiastic God conquered the East and even reached India. As a conqueror of India, Dionysos must be understood as a divine forerunner of Alexander the Great and his Asian campaigns (335-323 B.C.E.).
The desert lynx is a Dionysian beast, and it is frequently shown alongside leopards. There are also several similar examples of rhyta with attached animal forequarters, and as can be seen in cat. No. 29, the lynx's body is decorated with vine and grape motifs, clearly indicating a deep relationship with the rites of Dionysos. We also know that the Mysteries of Dionysos included ritual vessels featuring this kind of hunting cat, such as a leopard or lynx. Similar examples in the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Sackler Gallery have the same kind of hair depiction on the animals' body, and a spiral motif on their shoulders. The curling hair motif on the lynxes on cat. Nos. 29 and 30 are not the same kind of motif. The lynx violently plunging and capturing the bird in such amazingly life-like form that we can almost feel the bird's surprise. A Greek craftsman with unparalleled skill created this motif which, in fact, originated in west Asia.
Given such Dionysian aspects, we should see the lynx-panther rhyta as an allegory of Graeco-Macedonian dominance over the collapsed Achaemenid Empire. The Dionysian affiliation makes it rather unlikely that all these rhyta should be entirely limited to late Hellenistic days, when the Central Asian Parthians had already erased Greek power from Iran to Mesopotamia, but archaeological clues for an earlier dating are presently lacking.
This brilliant rhyton with lynx and cockerel must be understood as a variant of such Near Eastern lynx rhyta. All are without any recorded provenance. Two pieces in the J. Paul Getty Museum have been dated to the 1st century B.C.E. on the basis of their Aramaic inscriptions. Our rhyton carries two inscriptions studied by P.O. Skjaervo, and the second gives the number 34. This should be a weight inscription, referring to a coin standard, but it may be one that differs from the standard used for the Getty vessels, which is based on a multiplier of 4. In this case a multiplier of 4 is much too small, and consequently Skjaervo suggested that this weight inscription may possibly refer only to the horn cup of the rhyton.
One might consider, however, the hexa-chalkons (copper coins) of Demetrius I of Bactria (about 205-171 B.C.E.), the famous conqueror of India. The weight of one of these coins is approximately 25.5 grams, which multiplied by 34 (867 g) gives almost precisely the weight of the vessel (877.2 g). This is only a possibility and should not be taken to imply a definite clue towards absolute chronology, although historical and mythological considerations may actually point to an expansion of the chronological range beyond the usual preference for a late Hellenistic dating.
SOURCE : MIHO MUSEUM
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