ssentially a crude art, synthesizing Hellenistic motifs with Iranian forms. Buildings of dressed stone and rubble and brick were decorated with sculpted heads and mural paintings. The larger-than-life-size bronze statue from Shami of a ruler is the most outstanding remaining Parthian monument.Of far greater artistic importance is the contribution of the Sassanids, who ruled Iran from A.D. 226 to the middle of the 7th century. Adapting and expanding previous styles and techniques, they rebuilt the Parthian capital at Ctesiphon. There a great palace with a huge barrel vault was constructed of rubble and brick. Sassanid architecture is decorated with carved stone or stucco reliefs and makes use of colorful stone mosaics. Beautiful gold and silver dishes, bowls, and ewers, often decorated with hunting scenes or animals in high relief, and textiles with symmetrical heraldic designs also remain. The Sassanids recorded their triumphs on immense outdoor rock reliefs scattered throughout Iran, often using the same sites that the Achaemenids had covered with reliefs and inscriptions.In Afghanistan at Bamian */ce5/CE004370.html* are ruins that show the great impact of Iranian art forms on works from the 4th to the 8th centuries. Frescoes and colossal Buddhas adorn Bamian's monasteries, revealing a fusion of Greco-Buddhist and Sassano-Iranian elements.The Coming of IslamLittle remains from the early centuries of Islam in Iran, but the influence of Persia on Islamic art and architecture */ce5/CE026135.html* in Syria and Palestine is very strong. A significant innovation by the Persians is the raising of a dome over a square hall by means of squinches */ce5/CE049228.html*. Also influential was their use of cut-stucco decoration, various intricate motifs, and ever-apparent symmetry.The earliest important Islamic monument extant in Iran is the mausoleum of Ismail the Samanid at Bukhara. Dated 907, it is a solid, square building in cut-brick style, cove...
