Birth of Persian Art (c. 550–486 BC)

Javier Álvarez-Mon, a native of Spain, holds degrees in ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology from the École du Louvre (Paris) and the University of California at Berkeley (USA), and in Religious Studies and Theology from the Graduate Theological Union and Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. A 2003 Fulbright-Hays (DDRA) Fellow and 2014–2018 Future Fellow (Australian Research Council), he has taught at the University of Sydney (Australia) and is presently Professor in Near Eastern Archaeology and Art at Macquarie University, Sydney (Australia). He is author and co-editor of numerous articles dedicated to the ancient Iranian civilizations of Elam and early Persia, as well as several books: The Arjan Tomb (2010), Elam and Persia (2011), The Elamite World (with Basello and Wicks, 2018), The Monumental Reliefs of the Elamite Highlands: A Complete Inventory and Analysis (from the Seventeenth to the Sixth Century BC) (2019), and The Art of Elam ca. 4200–525 BC (2020).

"Achaemenid royal art has long been regarded as a unified and seemingly immutable tradition, yet the earliest works already stood apart in their originality, above all in the architecture and visual arts inaugurated by Cyrus at Pasargadae, before being perfected and canonized under Darius. In this masterful study, J. A.-M. radically renews our vision of these foundations, pursuing their every nuance with prodigious erudition and a command of the older artistic traditions of Elam, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, and the Levant. By reconstructing the genealogy of motifs from the dawn of the first millennium BC to the birth of Persian art, he not only illuminates the intricate processes of inheritance, transformation, and innovation that culminated in the Achaemenid idiom but also restores to Elamite art—a domain in which he is an undisputed authority — the central and innovative role it played in this story."~ Rémy Boucharlat"Drawing on his previous research on the history and civilization of ancient Elam, Javier Álvarez-Mon reopens the much-debated issue of the genesis of the art that developed during the time of the Great Kings, particularly at Pasargadae under the reigns of Cyrus (around 550-530) and his son Cambyses (530-522), but also in the high places built and decorated under Darius I (522-486), namely Susa, Persepolis, Bisutun and Naqš-i Rustam. Following in the footsteps of a lineage of archaeologists and art historians, he profoundly renews a question that has always confronted historians: how to explain both the seemingly sudden birth of what was the first world empire of Antiquity (the Persian-Achaemenid Empire), and that of aulic art, which expresses the conceptions and ambitions of the new rulers? The author offers essential keys that shed light on what was still imperfectly understood and he opens up avenues for the future."~ Pierre Briant, Emeritus College de France, Paris.

• Preface; Introduction; PART I – BIRTH OF PERSIAN ART AT PASARGADAE; PART II – EARLY PERSIAN CEREMONIAL AND POLITICAL LANDSCAPES; PART III – PERSIAN ART [RE]DEFINED; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.