The title of this sculpture is a Human-headed winged bull and winged lion. It is often called shedu or lamassu. A lamassu represents a female deity. A shedu refers to the male counterpart of a lamassu. There is no name of the artist. The Human-headed winged bull and winged lion is from the citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin, Neo-Assyrian. This winged lion stood in Ashurnasirpal II 's palace at Nimrud, one of the enormous stone statues of winged beasts set up at entrances and doorways to protect the king from evil and to impress all thoese who entered. It is excavated at Kalhu (modern Nimrud). The sculpture is dated to ca. 883-859 B.C. and dimensions are H. 10ft. 3 1/2 in. (313.7 cm). It is plain ivory color. It is now situated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (32.143.1–.2). Medium is gypsum alabaster. The sculpture has the head of a human male, a body of an bull or a lion, bird 's wings, and a long tail that is very long and looks like a broom. Also, the head of a human male has a shaggy beard, big eyes, the thick eyebrows, tall nose, and small lip. It wears a belt, and has five legs. A belt on the waist signifies power. Their heads are crowned with the horned caps typical of deities throughout the ancient Near East. At the facade of this sculpture, it appears to stand firmly in place. But at the side of this sculpture, it is striding forward. It was carved in colossal size, and placed as a pair. It was predominantly placed at either side of the entrances of cities,
Examining the Ancient Egyptian civilization reveals much about the nature of its art. The art was mainly religious in content and purpose and, as the “religious dogma” remained unchanged for nearly 3000 years, so did the art (Piper, 1991: 24). Because Isis and Horus are divine beings, they had to be portrayed “with limited human expression” according to “strict formal conventions, in keeping with their divinity” (Mason, 2007:13). The sculpture is fairly flat on the back side of the throne, for the sake of functionality. It was not “intended to be seen in the round”, but was most probably placed against the wall of a tomb (Ancient Egypt – Myth & History, 2002: 439). In fact, this sculpture was not made
Guarding the entrance to the 100 feet tall temple are four enormous statues of the Pharaoh, who ruled for roughly 66 years during the 19th dynasty. Each statue stands 67 feet high and depicts Ramses seated on his throne, wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. Adorning the sides of the thrones is the symbolic unification of Egypt by the Nile Gods. The whole upper body of one of the figures is destroyed, damaged by an ancient earthquake. You can still see the remains of the torso and head at the base near the feet. Statues of Ramses mother Mut-Tuy, principal wife Nefertari, and son, Prince Amonherkhepshef, stand at his sides, almost as high as his knees, and smaller statues between his legs are thought to represent either his daughters or lesser wives. The frieze topping the temple facade shows 22 baboons worshipping the sun. The recessed statue above the entrance is that of the falcon-headed Ra-Harakhti (associated with Horus) and is flanked by two Bas-reliefs of Ramses, presumably worshipping him. Three connected halls inside the temple dig 185 feet deep into the mountain, where pictures of the King's "grand" accomplishments can be seen covering the walls. The temple was completed near the 24th year
To start at the beginning or the Canon of these works of art would be to go to the Prehistoric times. To give some background about this time, the prehistoric period was art found when people were still living in caves and just starting the first civilization of humans. According to Smarthistory.org the oldest collection of ornamentation was found in Africa and being over 82,000 years old. The sculpture I'm going to be talking about from this period is the sculpture called “Lion-Human”. The Lion Human to me looks like a tall older man with the characteristics of a lion with a long mane with a long pointed nose. The artist used expressionism to show that the man had the qualities of a man but also had the inner workings of a lion. It was probably how he
The statue of King Sahure and a Nome god is an interesting piece of Ancient Egyptian art ( c. 2500 BC ) that shows signs of Ancient Egyptian culture and beliefs. The statue is a small relief sculpture, meaning the sculptural elements are attached to the solid background of the sculpture and appears to be emerging from the material. The piece clearly depicts two figures side by side, one standing on the left and one sitting on the right (facing foreward). The purpose of this piece was probably to depict a certain symbolic interaction between the two characters.
The sculpture portrays the God of Harvest, Dionysus, with his loyal satyr follower, Pan. A considerable amount of detail when into the carving of Dionysus; the multiple grapevines in his hair, his ceremonial staff Thyrsus, the goatskins and the cup of wine he’s holding are all symbols of Dionysus. The composition is very asymmetrical, and creates a contrapposto arrangement, which is distinctly Grecian (Gardner). It was carved out of beautiful fine marble, which also had another purpose in the way of making this piece of art last for many years. Along with the tree trunk between the two men providing support at the base, and the elongated arms providing more structural stability. The God’s head is even reinforced by his hair to make sure the head doesn’t break off. This sculpture is visually and aesthetically pleasing, but doesn’t serve a useful function, like textiles or furniture. Therefore, it is considered a figurative piece of art, which art that is very clearly modeled after real object or person(s), and is therefore representational
The Striding Apis Bull is 18x22 7/8 inches. It is carved out of Serpentinite and has a dark polished look to it. The body structure of the bull is carved in proportion and has a nice smooth surface. The shape of the bull is very round and natural. However, below its horns on the back of its neck there are rough white lines that have been carved out. I can clearly tell that these lines have symbolic meaning. The lines roughly cross the neck and upper back forming an interesting pattern. The bull looks as
This was done by putting the Lamassu throughout his citadel. The animals that make up the Lammasu are animals significant to Assyria because they represent strength and power. These animals include a lion and bull. Having the king’s human head with the body of a winged lion/bull showed that he had the characteristics represented by the animals. The size of the Lamassu also was used to communicate his power. Sargon’s lust for power was also shown by his military campaigns. During his rule, Sargon was beset with many rebellions. He violated treaties and used his wealth to fund his army. These rebellions led to Sargon conquering more areas. His citadel and statues of Lamassu were used to demonstrate his power to the people of his city. Since the city was made up mostly of war prisoners and deportees it was important to show a strong sense of power. Having the Lammasu show his power demonstrated that his power and himself were protected by the spirits because they were also used used as guardian figures. Gaining power and spreading his empire was Sargon’s main concern and by using the Lamassu he signified his lust for power and
The sculptor of the goddess Sekhmet was produced in the 18th Dynasty in the New Kingdom during the reign of Amenhotep 111 in the years 1390-1352BC . The statue captures the image of the goddess Sekhmet who is a powerful woman with the head of a lion. The sculpture has a mesh of the mane and hair that have been carved together beneath the uraeus- Cobra and the solar disk. There is a carved inscription that reads “Amenophis 111, beloved of the goddess”. The source of the sculpture is Thebes, Karnak from Upper Egypt. The medium used by the artist is granodiorite. The dimensions of the image are 20cm with a base of a width dimension of 47.5cm and diameter of 95.5cm . The image is carved from a single monolithic block that presents quite high artisanship. The detail of the head and the decoration of the seat are also
Since being discovered, the statue has been found to feature aspects of two different dynasties, the 13th and the 19th (Horne 1985, 22). The inscriptions along the base and throne detail the various names and titles held by Ramesses II. Also, along the left side of the throne, there is evidence of a carving error in which a duck was intended to face in the direction of the knees of the pharaoh. In the hieroglyphs, the artisan carved the signs the wrong way and attempted to cover the mistake with a plaster filling. On the right side of the throne, the meaning is the same as that on the left because the hieroglyphs are a reflection of each other; however, the duck is in the correct direction. It is because the two sides have
Starting with Bastet, this free-standing statue hails from Late –Ptolemaic Period (664–30 B.C) from Egypt. Medium used was bronze, precious metal and black bronze inlays. The dimensions are H. 5 cm (4 1/8 in.); W. 3.2 cm (1 1/4 in.); D. 3.9 cm (1 9/16 in.). This statuette was donated to the Museum by George and Florence Blumenthal in 1934 and is on view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 134.
Some art included the “ba” which was, in Egyptian portrayal, a sculpture of a small bird with a human head
The British Museum in London holds many ancient pieces of art. There are so many galleries and exhibits inside the museum that several pieces do not get the attention they deserve. One such piece resides in the Assyrian exhibit inside the museum. It is a collection of three alabaster panels that act as registers of a narrative story. The expertly carved reliefs illustrate the great lion hunt performed by an Assyrian king in an arena. So much emotion is portrayed in the brutal imagery of the lion hunt. These great alabaster slabs once resided in an Assyrian palace in present day Nineveh. The reliefs were excavated in the 1840’s by Hormuzd Rassam, employed by Austen Henry Layard of the British Museum. Rassum found the palace by secretly digging at night because the site was originally claimed by French archeologist Victor Place. Since the excavation, the lion hunt reliefs have been displayed in the British Museum. The lion hunt reliefs features so many qualities ranging from historical to artistic. In this report the topic of why the reliefs were made, how they represented the king, the symbolism of the lion, and artistic prowess of the piece will be exposed.
The two sculptures presented for this assignment are the Statue of Gudea, which dates back to 2090 B.C. (“Statue of Gudea,” 2000) and The Royal Acquaintances Memi and Sabu, which dates back to 2575–2465 B.C. (“The Royal Acquaintances Memi and Sabu,” 2000). Both statues represent people; however, they depict different types of people from completely different time periods and cultural backgrounds. The Statue of Gudea shows the ruler of southern Mesopotamian, Gudea, whose reign was from 2144-2124 B.C. (“The votive statue of Gudea: A formal analysis,” 2011) sitting in a praying position with his hands locked and his eyes forward. He is dressed in what appears to be a lavish robe with an inscription that clearly depicts what Gudea thought of himself and his successes during his time as ruler. The Royal Acquaintances Memi and Sabu represent what is thought to be a married ancient Egyptian couple who are lovingly embracing each other. Aside from looking at
triangular shape because of the eyebrows expression. Its cheeks are deeply set in contrast with the protruding muzzle and nose. This feature is emphasized and focused more than all other lion sculptures of greek. Mouth is slightly open which shows both upper and lower teeth, each and every teeth are well carved. It was mentioned that the sculptors used tooth chisel on the lion’s entire body to depict the hide of the beast. There is also an error of this sculpture “The restoration of the muzzle and lower jaw, which was done around the beginning of the twentieth century, is too large for the rest of the lion and, therefore causes the lion to have a stupid rather than a fierce expression.” PP: The sculptor’s attempting to show facial expression
During early dynasty Egypt period, Egypt’s kings were reverted as gods in human form. So, Egyptian sculptor created statues of their kings and queens. After creating the statue