Standard; Luristan, 900-600 B.C.

Standard; Luristan, 900-600 BC.
Bronze.
Measurements: 34 x 8,5 x 2 cm.
Cast bronze standard from the Luristan culture. It consists of a narrower shaft, decorated with smooth and striated moldings located in the lower area. In the upper part we see two figures on the sides with a feline aspect facing each other, in an aggressive attitude, in a composition that is both synthetic and symbolic but loaded with expressiveness, precisely due to the capture of this unresolved tension. Finally, the piece ends with two ibex also facing each other.
The Luristan culture developed between the eleventh and eighth centuries BC, when it was eliminated by the conflicts in the area during that century. It was a nomadic people from southern Russia, settled in the Iranian mesta and composed of different independent groups without national identity, but with common cultural characteristics. They developed a rich metal culture, working mainly in bronze. With it they made all kinds of functional pieces, as well as votive offerings and objects of personal adornment. Theirs was a figurative art, although cryptic and deeply symbolic, which sought expressiveness over naturalism. In the Luristan pieces, a marked axis of symmetry is always apparent, as can be seen in this short sword, practically devoid of ornamentation, but nevertheless endowed with fluid forms reminiscent of the blade of a large plant. This simple design suggests the organic, giving the piece the appearance of a vegetable leaf without actually making it concrete, playing with suggestion and formal evocation. In fact, the ambiguity of forms and motifs was a constant in the pieces of this culture, mainly in the figures of divinities, although it was a concept that was totally assimilated and extended to the entire production.