Arthur Pope and the Legendary Age of Iranian Archaeology

Chang Yangming (Ph.D., Institute of Oriental Studies, Leuven University)

"Shiraz has the tombs of Sadi and Hafez, while Isfahan has the tomb of the Pope."

198 1 winter, Richard N. Frye, then professor of Iranian studies at Harvard university, wrote in a letter to rexford rexford. Having said that, Fei Naisheng doesn't want to compare Popper with Persian poets who wrote Orchard, Rose Garden and Poetry. This comparison is probably purely based on the architecture of three tombs-Sadi Tomb and Popper Tomb were designed by mohsin Foroughi, a famous Iranian architect and professor of architecture at Teheran University, while Hafez Tomb was designed by Foroughi. Naturally, Pope is not qualified to be compared with Sadi and Hafez, whether in the field of Persian literature or in the whole Iranian civilization. However, no matter then or now, it is by no means an ordinary thing to have a mausoleum in the garden of a good location in Isfahan. For Pope, this may also be the best destination for his lifelong love of Persian cultural relics, art and architecture.

Arthur Upham Pope was born in the spring of 188 100 in Feniks, a small town in the southwest of Rhode Island. /kloc-At the age of 0/8, Pope graduated from college of wooster, Massachusetts, entered Brown University, and obtained his master's degree seven years later. While studying at Brown University, he met Bertha Damon, who later became a famous writer, and got married. In the following five years, Pope went to new york, Boston and other places to continue his studies at Cornell and Harvard. 19 1 1 year, Pope got a job in the philosophy department of the University of California, Berkeley, and the couple moved to Oakland, California. During his six-year teaching in Berkeley, Pope met his later partner and working partner, and then his student Phyllis Ackerman. The controversy caused by this nondescript teacher-student relationship eventually led to Pope's resignation from Berkeley, and finally he was completely away from the philosophical circle. 1920, after divorcing Posa Damon, Pope and Ackerman registered to get married and they continued to live in California. Since then, Pope and Ackerman have devoted themselves wholeheartedly to his long-standing interest, that is, the collection, appreciation and research of oriental (especially Persian and Arabic) cultural relics and works of art.

1929, Arthur Pope inspected the mosque building in Isfahan, which is now in the Art Library of Harvard University.

1947, Arthur Pope and Phyllis Ackerman were in the research room of their Asian Institute in new york, and now they are in the art library of Harvard University.

Pope chose to enter the field of oriental art history and cultural relics industry at this time, and there may be more realistic motives besides personal interests. After World War I, the center of the global art collection market gradually shifted from Europe, where everything was in ruins, to North America. As far as the Middle East is concerned, the gradual collapse of the Ottoman Turkish Empire and the decline of the Persian Jaquet dynasty triggered changes in the social and political order, which further promoted the collection of antiques and works of art in the Middle East to flow into the west and enter the field of vision of European and American collectors in large numbers. In addition, since modern times, western scholars, explorers and various public and private institutions have extensively participated in the treasure hunt and archaeological work in the whole old continent. After entering the 20th century, the research and teaching of Chinese, history, archaeology and art history in various stages of Asian and African ancient history has opened up its own new world in the academic circles of Europe and North America in the name of Orientalism, and it is usually supported by authoritative figures in the host countries and influential people from all walks of life. Of course, the western world's questioning about the origin of its own classical civilization was not the only driving force for people to explore the ancient oriental civilization at that time. For the modern Middle East that was forming at that time, the local residents who gradually walked out of the dream of the Ottoman Empire had different beliefs and languages, and began to reshape their national history and identity through the interpretation of ancient civilization. These ideological factors also inevitably have an impact on the excavation, research and cultural relics collection of ancient sites in the Middle East.

Faced with such a rapidly expanding emerging market, there are few experts, especially those from the United States, who really have the ability to evaluate antiques and artworks in the Middle East. Therefore, in the early 1920s, only a few years after Pope resigned from Berkeley and devoted himself to the study of oriental art, he has become a well-known American cultural relic expert in the Middle East. Art galleries, museums and collectors all over the United States asked him about Persian and Arabic cultural relics. In addition to consulting services, Pope also began to help museums and individual collectors in North America introduce dealers selling Middle Eastern antiques and artworks, or directly act as an intermediary among them. He has collected a large number of Middle Eastern artifacts for museums in San Francisco, Chicago and Kansas City. In this process, the Pope's preference for Persian art is obvious. In the archives of the Chicago Museum of Art, there are 400 collections whose names are marked as Pope's collections, more than half of which are from Iran. From 65438 to 0925, Pope began to work as a consultant librarian of the Chicago Museum of Art, and was entrusted by the Museum Council to go to Iran to investigate the local monuments and cultural relics.

Archaeology started in Iran not too late. In the middle of19th century, under the rule of Jiakai dynasty, western archaeologists had begun to conduct field excavations in Iran. Susa, located in Khuzestan province in southwest Iran, near the south of the two river basins, is the first large-scale excavation site in Iran, and the excavation history of this site is also a microcosm of the initial development stage of Iranian archaeology. 185 1 year, William Loftus, a British scholar, began to investigate the Susa site after finishing his work in the famous places in the south of the two river basins, Ur and uruk. But two years later, loftus left Susa and returned to the two river basins. Later, under the lobbying of French doctor Joseph Désiré Tholozan, King Naser al-Din Shah awarded the excavation permit of Susa site to French explorer Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy, who visited the site from 65438 to 1886. 1897, the French scholar Jean-Jacques de Augustus de Morgan resumed the excavation of Jurava at the Susa site. This kind of excavation continued until the eve of World War I, during which it was fruitful. In this excavation, the famous code of hammurabi stone tablet and Nalan Xin Shengli stone tablet were discovered. A large number of Elam cuneiform clay tablets unearthed in different periods also provide rich materials for studying the origin of characters and the history of Elam. In addition, Susa also unearthed a large number of architectural components and works of art from the Achamani Persian period. Most of the cultural relics unearthed in this archaeological excavation are now in the Louvre. The excavation process and results were later published in "Archaeology of itself" and the newsletter of the French archaeological delegation in Iran (Cahiers de la dé lé Gation arch é logique Fran? Aise en Iran) and other series. The outbreak of World War I stopped all French archaeological activities in Iran, and Iran became the battlefield of Britain, Russia and Ottoman. 192 1 year, the military coup launched by Cossack Corps became the last straw to crush the Persian Jakai dynasty, and the French royal concession in the field of Iranian archaeology came to an end. 1925 65438+February, Reza Khan, who had been in power for many years, officially ascended the throne and became king, and Iran entered the Pahlavi dynasty. In the spring of this year, the Pope had arrived in Tehran and met with Reza Khan, then Prime Minister of the Kingdom, before he ascended the throne.

In a speech entitled "The Past and Future of Persian Art" held in Tehran, Pope told Reza Khan, his friends and subordinates present: "Persia is famous for its diverse, unique and brilliant decorative arts. Regardless of ancient and modern times, for more than 2,000 years, throughout the civilized world, people have paid tribute to the Persian aesthetic genius in the form of words and coins. " In his speech, the Pope praised the long artistic and architectural heritage of Persia and urged the Iranian dignitaries present to pay attention to the traditional beauty of the land they ruled. The Pope's enthusiasm was infected by Reza Khan, and he became interested in protecting and reviving Persian cultural heritage. He authorized the Pope to enter important historical sites and mosques all over Iran to record and study ancient Iranian architecture through photography and painting. Since then, Reza Khan of Pahlavi dynasty and his son King Shah Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and his son have become the most important supporters of the Pope in his life.

This trip to Iran also had a profound impact on the life of the Pope. In addition to buying a large number of antiques and artworks along the way, after returning to the United States, Pope began to focus his interest entirely on the history of ancient Iranian architecture and art. Pope was appointed as Iran's special representative for the Philadelphia World Expo on 1926. He cooperated with the architect Karl Augustus Ziegler to design and build the Persian Pavilion based on the Shah Mosque (now the Imam Mosque) in Isfahan, and finally won the gold medal in this World Expo. In the winter of the same year, the Pope held a Persian art exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art ... In his words, this exhibition was "the first serious exhibition in the world featuring Persian art and showing its various aspects in depth". At the same time, the Pope presided over the first International Oriental Art Conference, which was the embryonic form of the International Iranian Art and Archaeology Conference he presided over many times later. From 65438 to 0930, Pope founded the American Institute of Persian Art and Archaeology (AIPAA) in new york, with the aim of "encouraging and promoting the appreciation and attention of Persian art in many ways". Thanks to the efforts of the Pope and the Persian Institute of Art and Archaeology, American scholars were in a leading position in the field of archaeological work during the Pahlavi Dynasty. Frederick Ursin of Harvard University, erich F Schmidt and Ernst Hertzfeld of Oriental College of Chicago University, etc. Take the lead in investigating and excavating in all parts of Iran. The latter two later discovered the most striking sites in Iran, namely Pasargadae and Persepolis, the magnificent capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.

1932, Edward ·m·m· warburg photographed Arthur pope and Eric Schmidt in Hisar mountain.

Besides on-the-spot investigation of Iranian ancient buildings and sites, Pope and his colleagues did a lot of literature work during their stay in new york. They searched for information related to Persian art in a vast number of manuscripts and historical publications, and classified these information. On the basis of combing the academic history of Iranian architecture and art, they further systematically sorted out and integrated the existing knowledge. In order to trace the development of various design styles and processing technologies, Pope and Ackerman collected and drew a large number of plates, and classified and analyzed their works according to their dates, which complemented their work in field investigation. In the past ten years, many field trips and visits to museums, scholars and collectors in European countries have greatly expanded the Pope's archival resources on ancient Iranian architecture and art. The collation and research of the results of this decade have finally been condensed into an overview of Persian art: from prehistoric times to the present 1938 to 1939 published by Oxford University Press. The first edition of this masterpiece consists of 6 volumes, including more than 2,800 pages of beautifully printed words, including 69 parts, 1 15 chapters, a nearly 1500 page catalogue, including more than 3,500 photos, 193 color plates and1. There are 72 authors from 16 countries in the book. At the call of the Pope, most of the first-class scholars in Europe and America who studied ancient oriental civilization participated in the integration of Persian art. As editors, Pope and Ackerman not only personally participated in the writing of many chapters, but also coordinated a large number of manuscripts with scholars from different backgrounds and viewpoints, linked different academic viewpoints and added thousands of internal cross-references. All these complicated works show their amazing efficiency and creativity. They chose this series of books to dedicate to their supporter-Iranian "King of Kings" reza shah pahlavi (the new name after Reza Khan ascended the throne). Since its publication, Persian Art Integration has become a must-read for understanding Iranian ancient art. In the 1960s, with the efforts of the Pope and the support of Reza Khan's successor, the new "King of Kings" Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the series was rearranged, edited and printed by Iranian and Japanese publishers, which improved the shortcomings of the first edition in the 1930s. Although most of the academic viewpoints in the book are out of date, Persian Art Integration, which embodies the painstaking efforts of a generation of scholars, is still a classic bibliography for studying Iranian ancient architecture and art, and has always been the best choice for consulting the photographic records related to Iranian ancient architecture.

The first edition of Persian art integration: from prehistoric times to the present (six volumes in total), Oxford University Press, 1938 to 1939.

Gawamlem Garden in Shiraz, where the Institute of Asian Studies of Pahlavi University is located, is also the residence of Pope and Ackerman in his later years. Kimia Maleki Photography, 20 19.

In his later years in Shiraz's residence, Arthur Pope, photo by Assadollah Behroozan.

202 1 is the birthday of Pope 140, and 52 years have passed since his death. Re-opening the Persian art integration and carefully appreciating those exquisite photos and hand-painted illustrations, it is hard not to make a more tolerant evaluation of Popper and Ackerman. Their multiple roles as scholars, curators, collectors and consultants of cultural relics dealers in the field of Iranian ancient architecture and art research and cultural relics collection are actually the key to help us understand the main body and establishment process of this type of art collection from the end of 19 to the beginning of the 20th century. Oleg Grabar, Popper's academic collaborator and master of ancient art history in the Middle East, described Popper as "an excellent operator active in the complex boundary between academics, transactions and collections". Looking back on the career of the Pope, from 1925 to 1969, it can be described as a legendary era of Iranian archaeology. Many archaeological discoveries at that time changed our understanding of ancient Iran and even the ancient world, and there were many incredible twists and turns in the process of archaeological discoveries. Similarly, behind many important discoveries at that time, the selfishness and colonial ambition of speculators were hidden. This legendary era is also the formation period of discipline consciousness, standards, classics and methods of modern archaeology and art history. Even though Pope needs to bear the original sin of "going from west to east" in modern times, it will inevitably be unfair to arbitrarily evaluate his life and achievements if he does not put his experience in his historical and social and cultural background. Fei Naisheng, Pope's successor in the Asian Institute, may be more worthy of our reference: "He (Pope) is a controversial figure. However, even those who criticize him will admit that he has strong organizational skills and persuasiveness. " The set of "Persian Art Integration" can not be easily picked up and read by one person, which is the best proof of Pope's strong organizational ability and persuasiveness-more importantly, his sincere love for Persian art and Iranian archaeology.

At the beginning of Orchard, Sadie wrote:

"Even if one of the 1000 poems is desirable, please accept it and don't be too picky."

Pope and Ackerman's Tomb in Isfahan, photographed by Kimia Maleki, 20 19.

Proofreading: Ding Xiao