The study and investigation of the principles of composition in Sasanian hunting plates

Abstract
        Sasanian dynasty, who governed as the last and the most glorious dynasty before Islam in Iran, has had an important role in enrichment of Sasanian silver works and we owe the majority of silver works to this era. Metalwork is one of the oldest arts inIranian civilization. The prominent metalwork crafts‚ left from different ages‚ acknowledge this fact. The art of this era has displayed the grandees' life style and their great position. The kings of that era were interested in manifesting their power through making the artists to make the silver works. The designs which were on the plates worked as a kind of advertisement to show their greatness. Hence, the remained silver works of that era is related with the kings' authority, their palace and hunting. These silver works have a variety of engraving and forms, including plates, bowls, grails, glasses and vases. Most of which, depict hunting scenes, the imperial court, banquet scenes, mythological stories, or animal/plant/human forms, and the majority of them which are left from this period are about Sassanian government's court. Sassanian artists had to use their whole abilities and arts to display the glory of their king, in the other words, a Sasanian artist must have done his best to display such a splendor and magnificence, otherwise he might not have been be called a good artist. In this study, the researcher wanted to study the silver dishes and examine them from different points of view ‚like composition, design aspects and so on. The researcher has investigated the composition in Sasanian silver works (Research on Hunting Plates), which lead her to gain new insights and discover that there must have been special rules beyond those patterns. Although such rules have not been told clearly and vividly anywhere, the researcher tried to conclude them from some signs and evidences which are acceptable by previous researchers .The results have revealed that there are the most common symmetrical patters in the composition of hunting plates. The symmetrical patterns which are widespread and are used in geometry, can define the patterns of silver works of Sassanian dynasty. So it was the artists' responsibility to obey such integrity and at the same time depict the related facts about their king's authority. This study may display that, although, hunting plates has had so many compositions and were varied in patterns and styles, there are four common patterns which are meaningfully accompanied in manufacturing of plates in the Sassanian palaces. So Sasanian hunting plates are designed in various compositions. In this article the best designs which were mentioned as the most common designs include vertical- horizontal composition, sparse composition, equilateral composition and crisscross composition. These four acceptable principles and patterns were only observed and found in the primary and original crafts which were in the higher level of Sassanian Palaces and Courts . Such principles were found in high level silver works which were special to the palaces' workshops and were not found in any other low level crafts.