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The 4th Figure in the "Artist's Feast", Piandjikent
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
FEASTING ("FEASTING ARTISTS")
Painting with glue paints on dry loess plaster
First half of the 8th century
Penjikent. Sector XXIV, room 1.
Access: from excavations in 1969
The main plot of the painting in the ceremonial hall, from which this fragment originates, is the scene of the feast, and, as usual in such paintings, the feasts are grouped in pairs. On the exposed fragment, the background of the painting is blue, on the right is the figure of a man who catches in his mouth a stream of wine pouring from a rhyton with a spout in the form of a ram's head. Nearby are two characters, one of whom passes a rhyton to the other; one side of the rhyton is shaped like an elephant's head, the other - like a camel's protome (head and upper torso). The character with a fan, sitting on the left, in an open caftan, next to him is a helmet and a belt. Unlike other similar compositions, the participants in the feast are dressed very casually. The object, placed in a case on the belt of one of the characters, is interpreted as a brush, which gave reason to believe that the painting depicts artists. Dishes with fruits are placed between the feasting. A winged camel and a hand with a wreath placed above their heads are symbols of the gods who patronize the feasting.
Photo by Oleg Belaychuk