Study of Animal Motifs of Sassanid Textile Design

Textile industry reached great prosperity during Sassanid Empire. Sassanid fabrics were appreciated due to the quality and unique designs. Decorative patterns of Sassanid textiles are contained geometric, plant, human and animal motifs and among all of them, animal motifs are the most notable ones. The present study investigates the expressive, mythical and visual aspects of animal motifs of Sassanid fabrics, thereby answering these questions: How are bird and quadruped motifs illustrated on fabrics? What is the color of these motifs? And what are the other ornaments that used on textiles? The study is done by analytical-descriptive method by historical approach and the information is accumulated by means of library method. The authors attempted to identify and classify animal motifs of remained fabrics and inspect the importance of the existence of these ornaments. In this article, nine images of limited samples of Sassanid fabrics have been analyzed in terms of visual and cultural-roots features. In general, the results define that, the animal motifs of Sassanid design included quadrupeds and birds which are drawn by simple lines and geometrical shapes. Overall, artists tend to use animals which had spiritual and mythical massages. Quadruped patterns include ram, horse, lion and hog. Additionally, bird patterns contain eagle, peacock, rooster and duck. We can see both figurative and abstract motifs with primarily colors which have been mostly used. The drawings have been done by geometric and delicate lines, also artists used plant and geometrical shapes to design animals' bodies.