Colossal Statue of Shapur I

The colossal statue of the Sasanian Great King Shapur I (240-272 AD) is located in a natural cave difficult to access, the so-called Schapurhöhle. This is in the south of present-day Iran, about 6 km from the ancient city Bischapur.

With its height of about 6.70 m and a shoulder width of 2 meters, the colossal statue Schapurs I shall apply in addition to the rock reliefs as most impressive image of the Sasanian work.

Features of the colossal statue

The monumental sculpture is carved from a grown on the spot stalagmites and is 35 m from the cave entrance, on the fourth of five terraces, which is 3.4 m below the level of the cave entrance.

The head and the body of the sculpture are relatively well preserved, while large parts of the arms and legs are almost completely missing. The colossal statue is no longer exactly at the original location. Probably an earthquake brought the statue between the fifteenth and the nineteenth century to case. It was erected in the mid- twentieth century on two reinforced concrete columns with iron bars again.

The approximately plastically carved sculpture depicts a male figure with remarkably strong and broad shoulders; they do is equivalent on all sides, detailed and sculpted with great care. The head of the colossal statue is made symmetrical in all details. The statue wears a crown with four stages battlements. While a large piece missing from the front steps pinnacle, the side and those are relatively well preserved on the back. A broad diadem closes off the crown at the bottom. The two bands of the diadem, the hard down the spine to the waist, widen from top to bottom and are crossed by about twenty horizontal, parallel furrows.

Below the diadem swell the hair out lush. They have a high degree of plasticity. The mass of hair on the left side of the sculpture is well preserved, while the ends are broken strands on the right side.

The non-existing left hand of the sculpture must have rested on the hilt once. The right arm is broken off just below the armpit. The highly weathered right hand is Akimbo.

The robe of the colossal statue is in three parts and consists of a vest, a pair of trousers and a robe. A semi-circular line above Choker indicates the undershirt from the finest material, of which only a small portion is visible. It works without wrinkles and seems to be almost transparent.

The upper garment of the sculpture fits close to the body. Due to the skin-tight cut shoulders, upper arms and chest of the ruler will be emphasized. Striking feature of the fabric of the robe are the sculpted structures that look like down leaping flames. They vary in length, designed different and arranged irregularly. The upper garment is tightly held together at the waist by a belt, while a second, loosely looped around the waist belt for fastening the scabbard is used. Both belts are bound with a loop to hang their broad, quergerippte ends.

The small remainder of the left thigh leads to the conclusion that the sculpture was a large fold pants. The fact that the pants of the colossal statue reaching to the floor, folding tracks, which rotate the legs at some distance from the foot of the sculpture show. It seems to be obvious that the sculptor of the colossal statue of this pant length and width preferred not only for aesthetic reasons, but also that they stabilize, ie the increase of the ground and the lowering the center of gravity of the extremely heavy colossal statue should serve.

The two feet of the sculpture are slightly apart, the left foot is a little further forward than the right. The original shoes of the colossal statue today are in varying condition. The right shoe is largely destroyed. The left shoe is virtually undamaged and has a round toe. The längsplissierten, wide laces meander S-shape on the ground.

Can be found at the colossal statue of three kinds of jewelry: a necklace, earrings made ​​of large beads and a bracelet on the right wrist. Despite the severe damage can be observed that the visible part of the necklace of the colossal statue of about fifteen large, round cut stones is that rest just below the neck approach in a semi-circular arc on the chest and increase in size towards the center. The Earrings of Shapur statue is spherical and exceeds the size of the earlobe. On the right side it is easily damaged while left only one hemisphere is obtained.

Identification of the colossal statue and the original shape of the crown

In the Sasanian Great King possessed each its own, designed to crown his reign. The Sassanid crowns differ primarily by their shape, the details of which were subject to strict rules. Therefore is to identify the representations of the Sasanian kings large the shape of the crown, which varied from ruler to ruler, the most important indication.

The crown of the Colossus today consists of two parts: a diadem and the stepped battlements part. Due to the shape of the crown as well as from art historical considerations, the sculpture can be clearly identified as Shapur I, identify the second Sassanid King of Kings.

Shapur I does not contribute at all his portraits a stepped battlements crown; However, he is never shown with a stepped battlements crown without Korymbos. Now the question arises, whether originally arose a Korymbos on the crown of the colossal statue.

The existence of a hole is drilled within the step battlements wreath on the crown, suggests that the crown of the colossal statue originally owned a Korymbos who was not of stone but of metal. The drilled hole in the stone can only have served to mortise the Korymbos. Calculations showed that the lost Korymbos the colossal statue originally had a height of about 1.5 and a width of about 1 m and even weighed more than a ton with a very low wall thickness.

Hair as a dating criterion

The colossal statue Schapurs I. is an extraordinary monument to the reign of this great king ( 240-272 AD) was performed.

In the early days of the Sassanian art image ( 224-309 AD) can be a continuous evolution of style find the most strikingly manifested in the change of hairstyle. The hairstyle gives therefore in many cases an important criterion for dating the frühsasanidischen reliefs.

The hairstyle of the colossal statue consists of four rows spaced-apart significantly, superimposed corrugated strands that do well below the diadem and symmetrical on the shoulders. Exactly the same hairstyle wearing Shapur I. on his rock reliefs, which emerged after 260 AD. On the basis of details of the hairstyle, the colossal statue of Schapurs I. G. Reza Garosi was dated AD in the second half of the sixties of the third century.

Sculptor of the colossal statue

The anonymous creator of the colossal statue Schapurs I can be considered one of the greatest ancient sculptors of the Middle East. The fact that he was able to finish the sculpture, is certain. According to reports from the postsasanidischen time, was the tons of Sculpture at least to the 14th century on their feet. It can not be ascertained whether Apasa, which is celebrated through the columns inscription in Bischapur as an outstanding sculptor, bore the main responsibility for the implementation of the colossal statue Schapurs I..

State of research

Although the cave with the colossal sculpture in the round Schapurs I. has been known since at least 1811 in the West, it took until recently in the literature only a small area. It was mentioned among others by Roman Ghirshman, Kurt Erdmann and Georgina Herrmann. The first comprehensive study of the cave and of the colossal statue comes from G. Reza Garosi.