Movassat, Johanna Domela

Dr. Johanna Domela Movassat graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies: Art and Archaeology. She is currently a Lecturer in Art History at the School of Art and Design and San Jose State University in California, where she teaches courses in art history, especially the art and architecture of the ancient and Islamic Middle East. Her publications and presentations focus primarily on topics related to the Middle East with lectures for the World Affairs Council, San Francisco, and Humanities West.

Large Vault at Taq-I Bustan: A Study in Late Sasanian Royal Art

2005 0-7734-6075-6
The large vault at Taq-i Bustan, Kermanshah, Iran, was built by the last great Sasanian king, Khusro II (590-628). It was a victory monument, a politicals statement of the power of the Sasanian king, and an expression of the three roles of a proper king: the head of the state religion, a great warrior, and a great hunter. It functioned as a summer retreat within a paradeisos for the Sasanian court and a reviewing stand for courtly and religious festivals including the great hunts of spring (No Ruz) and fall (Mihragan). As an example of late Sasanian royal art it shows the influence of ancient Mesopotamian, Hellenistic, Seleucid, Iranian (Achaemenid through Sasanian), Roman, Byzantine, and Eastern Turkish elements on the royal art of the late Sasanian period. These elements would provide much of the basis for Islamic art.