Style Characteristics (Formal properties) in portrayal
of humans in Mesopotamian art….
• Evaluate the communicative stylistic and formal visual aspects of Mesopotamian art
and its iconography:
• Depiction of human figure: Always adherence to a canon of proportion-with
variations to suggest individual, show status, or illustrate narrative…
• As diety:
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In human form with a few alterations to denote status-particularly animal qualities
Conceptual view-how does the twisted torso make the goddess appear in Warka vase?
Clothed
Larger/taller/higher up
As mortals:
As individuals
As symbols of human existence
As elements of a narrative
Often naked
Smaller/less significant/lower in composition
Higher than animals
Linked to natural world and godly world
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When we have to really link our analysis to
Our judgements
•TO REVIEW:
•Hierarchical Scale: The powerful person is larger than
others or in center.
•Monumental Scale: The image is very large.
•Idealizing the Face: Showing him/her young, blemish
free, attractive and/or old and dignified—whatever is
valued as perfect in that society…
•Distorting or Idealizing the Body: Giving the person a
strong muscular body, or as is the case in Byzantine art,
no body at all.
•The Pose: Having a person standing or sitting upon a
horse makes them look more powerful. Gestures can
have a symbolic significance.
•Placing the person in a setting that evokes Power: a
throne room, or performing a miraculous act.
•The Costume: In some societies certain clothing is
reserved for those who have power –sometimes it is a
color-other times there are symbols of power ON the
clothing….
•Relationship to other
styles/things/people/environment-the image is shown
in comparison to something else or in reference to or
association with someone or something else
(CONTENT)
•Subject matter/narrative activities demonstrate a skill
or superiority (CONTENT)
• Symbols or writing accompany the image to suggest
something that can’t be directly seen within the
image (CONTENT)
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• TO SUMMARIZE: Sumerian art:
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Characteristics of Ancient Sumer that influenced later civilizations…
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-registers
-large eyes, inlaid
-small hands and feet
-composite view
-hierarchy of scale/proportion
-cuneiform
-deities – conceptual, larger, taller, animal components
-mortals – individuals, symbols of human existence
-idealized face and body
-settings that evoke power
-heraldic composition
Nudity and clothing in heirarchy
Sumerian Sculpture Characteristics
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• Sumeria eventually evolves to be led by Kings-and out of this
is born the Akkadians
• With the Akkadians-the idea was a united nation-no more
individual city-state gods and goddesses….now Sumerian art
has to glorify the monarch….but USES much of the same
techniques and devices to do so because that is the existing
PARADIGM….
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THE VICTORY STELE
OF NARAM-SIN
Victory stele of NaramSin, Iran, 2254-2218BCE
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Figure 2-13 Detail
Naram-Sin defeating the Lullubi
© 2005 Saskia Cultural Documentation, Ltd.
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• DEFINING CULTURAL
IDENTITY THROUGH ART
– Humans are at the center of
existence
– Gods and humans live in a
heirarchy
– Nature serves as a bridge
between humans and the
deities
– Gods and goddesses appear
as versions of humans
– Technical and Formal
properties are
measured/careful and
restrained in their execution.
– What formal devices are
used here to help us
understand the content of
this narrative?
– Are there any characteristics
of power in portraiture at
work?
•Akkadians: Victory stele of Naram-Sin, Iran, 2254-2218BCE
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HEAD OF AN
AKKADIAN RULER
Head of an Akkadian ruler, from
Nineveh (modern Kuyunjik),
Iraq, ca. 2250–2200 BCE.
Copper, 1’ 2 3/8” high. Iraq
Museum, Baghdad.
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•Akkadian
•Influence of Mesopotamia clear
•Deliberately destroyed for its
Reference to a specific culture?
Pattern and order even clearer in
The rhythmic organized design
Of the beard
How is slippage used here to
Symbolize power and control?
Figure 2-12 Head of an Akkadian ruler,
from Nineveh (modern Kuyunjik), Iraq, ca.
2250–2200 BCE. Copper, 1’ 2 3/8” high.
Iraq Museum, Baghdad.
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• Akkadians driven out by Kings of Ur who rule for 100
years…THIS IS THE TIME OF GUDEA…
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•Ur
•This King offered statues of himself to the
Goddesses…in a standing pose-he is linked to
The Goddess by HOLDING HER PICTORIAL
SYMBOL: the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
Flowing from a cup. This probably also alludes
To his role in providing irrigation canals and
Further glorifies the King more than the
Goddess herself….
Here he holds the ground plans direct from the
God of building-clearly serving to affirm the
King’s key role as go-between of the gods
And the physical world….
Figure 2-15 Seated statue of Gudea holding temple
plan, from Girsu (modern Telloh), Iraq, ca. 2100
BCE. Diorite, approx. 2’ 5” high. Louvre, Paris.
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•How are the technical properties here
Contributing to a sense of power and
Authority?
Figure 2-19 Statue of Queen Napir-Asu, from Susa,
Iran, ca. 1350–1300 BCE. Bronze and copper, 4’ 2
3/4” high. Louvre, Paris.
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Even without the head, what
Could you “read” in the visual
Language of this piece that tells
Use something about the individual
Or might help us guess something
About the culture it came from?
Figure 2-19 Alternate View
total from left
© 2005 Saskia Cultural Documentation, Ltd.
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• The third millennium is chaotic but it gives rise to the
Babylonians by way of Hammurabi.
• Babylon is the cultural center of Sumer and Hammurabi’s
self-proclaimed connection to the sun god breeds justice in
all of Sumer…..
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Ishtar Gate
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Hammurabi’s Code Stele
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HAMMURABI
• the king who made the four quarters of the earth obedient.
• This basalt stele was erected by King Hammurabi of Babylon
(1792–1750 BC) probably at Sippar, city of the sun god
Shamash, god of justice.
• Executed in the last years of the sovereign's life, it was a
political testament aimed at future princes, for whom it
offered a model of wisdom and equity.
• The Code also served as a literary model for the schools of
scribes, who were to copy it for over one thousand years.
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•BABYLONIAN
•First example of attempted
Foreshortening in the body of
Hammurabi….(narrative device and relevance
Of the piece)
Position of the figures in relationship to
Each other can be read carefully to
Understand the content. (narrative device)
Here the enlargement of the eye of each and
The connection of gaze may be a bit of
Slippage from the Sumerians (context of power
Language)
The space they occupy is specific but
Generic as well-it is not as relevant as
WHAT is being shown….(like a scene in a playThe backdrop is part of the narrative device
How would this serve to codify the
Supremacy of the laws below?
Figure 2-16 Stele with law code of
Hammurabi, from Susa, Iran, ca. 1780 BCE.
Basalt, approx. 7’ 4” high. Louvre, Paris.
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• a historical prologue relating the investiture of King
Hammurabi in his role as "protector of the weak and
oppressed," and the formation of his empire and
achievements;
• a lyrical epilogue summing up his legal work and preparing
its perpetuation in the future;
• these two literary passages frame a text describing almost
three hundred laws and legal decisions governing daily life in
the kingdom of Babylon. The legal part of the text uses
everyday language and is here simplified, for the king wanted
it to be understood by all. However, the legal decisions are all
constructed in the same manner: a phrase in the conditional
sets out a problem of law or social order; it is followed by a
response in the future tense, in the form of the sanction for
the guilty party or the settlement of a situation: "Should an
individual do such and such a thing, such and such a thing
will happen to him or her."
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• The principal subjects are family law, slavery, and
professional, commercial, agricultural and administrative law.
Economic measures set prices and salaries. The longest
chapter concerns the family, which formed the basis of
Babylonian society. It deals with engagement, marriage and
divorce, adultery and incest, children, adoption and
inheritance, and the duties of children's nurses.
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• Babylon survives as an empire until 1595BCE when the
Hittites and then the Kassites take up residence…..
• Meanwhile-a small northern city-state gains its
independence….
• Until 612BCE, the ASSYRIAN EMPIRE is the enormous
power of the land-eventually even invading Lower Egypt….
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What is important to the artists
and patrons who commissioned
this work?
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Depicts multiple viewpoints of the same event to tell as thoroughly as
Possible –an adaptation of conceptual view of one animal to show it
As clearly as possible……
They are actually floating on inflatable pigskins…
•THE ASSYRIANS WERE TO THE SUMERIANS WHAT THE ROMANS WILL BE TO THE GREEKS-BIG OLE
•COPIERS!!!! But….there are new uses for old techniques and devices-and this makes for new effects…..
•Egyptian Influence in narrative format noted here as well….
Figure 2-22 Assyrian archers pursuing enemies, relief from the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Kalhu (modern Nimrud),
Iraq, ca. 875–860 BCE. Gypsum, 2’ 10 5/8” high. British Museum, London.
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•Here –the narrative has an immediacy we have not seen before-and man is presented as having total dominion over nature-similar
elements of narrative device are being used BUT other elements are changing according
to the new themes….
•ASSYRIAN
•Here we see the story told in detail in a SPECIFIC setting that details multiple viewpoints so as not to leave anything out…
•This is quite large-exactly the height of Ms Dowdy in shoes….
Figure 2-24 Ashurbanipal hunting lions, relief from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal, Nineveh (modern Kuyunjik), Iraq, ca.
645–640 BCE. Gypsum, 5’ 4” high. British Museum, London.
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WHY was this piece made? What is the
Point of it?
HOW does it get its point across?
What kind of sensory experience would you
Have with this piece?
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LAMASSU:
Symbols combining man, bull, and bird,
they offered protection against enemies.
They also had a strictly architectural function,
as they bore some of the weight of the arch
above
An inscription on two panels between the
hind legs of the bull praises the ruler by
rehearsing his virtues and calls down a curse
on whomever should seek to harm the edifice.
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•ASSYRIAN
•Lamassu: A winged man-headed bull
As a guardian at the gate of the palace.
•An innovation in composite/conceptual
View: from the front –he is at rest and
From the side in motion-all his relevant
Parts exist (discuss problem of the 5th leg)
Figure 2-21 Lamassu (winged, human-headed
bull), from the citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin
(modern Khorsabad), Iraq, ca. 720–705 BCE.
Limestone, approx. 13’ 10” high. Louvre, Paris.
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• Neo-Babylonians, Persians and Achaemenids rule for
centuries but when Alexander the Great comes on the scene,
the end of Sumer as we have seen it begins….
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• Approx. 525ish to 330ish BCE
PERSIANS
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-man-headed bulls (city gates) known as Lamassu
-platforms (palace at Persepolis)
-huge audience halls (palace at Persepolis)
-reliefs CUT INTO CLIFFS (triumph of Shapur I over
Valerian)
• -breaking through borders (king) (triumph of Shapur I over
Valerian)
Power
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•Sassanian
•How is this work different in form
Than the portraits from earlier
Mesopotamian periods?
This work is influenced by the Greeks
And exported to influence motifs in
The Christian West as well as the Islamic
Traditions further east.
Detailed extraordinary metalwork is
Typical of the Sassanians
Figure 2-29 Head of a Sasanian king
(Shapur II?), ca. 350 CE. Silver with mercury
gilding, 1’ 3 3/4” high. Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York.
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