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Fragment of a Wall Decoration from the Palace of Xerxes: "Guardsman" in Procession
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
In 486 BC, Xerxes succeeded Darius I as king of Persia. His empire, then the world’s largest and most powerful, encompassed an area from Libya to western India and from Ethiopia to Afghanistan. This relief fragment of one of his guards probably comes from the west stairway of his enormous palace at Persepolis. As chronicled by Herodotus, the Greeks defeated Xerxes in a clash of conflicting political systems: democracy and monarchy.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineFragment of a Wall Decoration from the Palace of Xerxes: "Guardsman" in Procession, 486–465 BCE. Iran, Achaemenid (550–330 BCE), Persepolis. Gray limestone; overall: 53 x 43.6 cm (20 7/8 x 17 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1943.279
