Bird Pecking at a Bunch of Grapes
Unknown · Period of the kings of Saba and dhu-Raydan, first to third century AD
On a small slab of pale alabaster a bird bends to peck at a hanging bunch of grapes, its plump body and the fruit cut in the champlevé technique, in which the background is lowered to leave the design standing out. The panel is thirty-two centimetres long and was probably part of a larger decorative border in a temple or tomb. Look at the simple, confident outline of the bird and the regular rows of dots that stand for the grapes.
The relief comes from Yemen, the land of the kingdom of Saba, and is dated to the first three centuries of our era, when the kings styled themselves rulers of Saba and dhu-Raydan. Vines and birds were popular motifs in South Arabian art, often borrowed from the Greek and Roman vocabulary that reached the region through the incense trade. The museum record notes that the South Arabian inscription visible on the slab is not authentic and was added later, a common practice among dealers in the nineteenth century. The Louvre bought the piece in eighteen eighty-six.
Did You Know? The South Arabian inscription on the slab is a modern fake, added to make an ancient carving more saleable to European buyers in the eighteen eighties.
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