Comparison
Jeanne Brletic 2nd Writing September 16, 2013
An Assyrian artistic style different from that of Babylonian art, which was the dominant art in Mesopotamia, began to emerge c. 1500 BC
The conquest of the whole of Mesopotamia and much surrounding territory by the Assyrians created a larger and wealthier state than the region had known before, and very large art in palaces and public places, I believe, intended to match the noble art of the neighboring Egyptian empire. The Assyrians developed a style of extremely large layout of very finely detailed narrative low reliefs in stone or alabaster, and originally painted, for palaces. The precisely defined reliefs concern royal affairs, chiefly hunting and war making. Power is given to animal forms, particularly horses and lions, which are remarkably represented in great detail. Human figures are comparatively exact and fixed but are also closely detailed, as in triumphal scenes of sieges, battles, and individual combat. Among the best known Assyrian reliefs are the lion-hunt alabaster carvings showing Ashurbanipal, which is in the British Museum.
The Assyrians made very little sculpture at all, except for colossal guardian figures, usually lions and winged beasts with bearded human heads, often the human-headed lamassu, which are sculpted in high relief on two sides of a rectangular block, with the heads effectively in the round (and also five legs, so that both views seem complete). These marked fortified royal gateways, an architectural form common throughout Asia Minor.
In Assyrian culture, lions represented forces opposed to the accomplishments of urban society. Artistic renderings of them being killed by Assyrian monarchs suggest the king's triumph over such alleged forces of evil. As in Egypt, lion hunts were events that regularly took place on palace grounds to show the king’s dominance also.
The artist in this relief was most likely trying to show to ennoble the lion to glorify their vanquisher, the
An Assyrian artistic style different from that of Babylonian art, which was the dominant art in Mesopotamia, began to emerge c. 1500 BC
The conquest of the whole of Mesopotamia and much surrounding territory by the Assyrians created a larger and wealthier state than the region had known before, and very large art in palaces and public places, I believe, intended to match the noble art of the neighboring Egyptian empire. The Assyrians developed a style of extremely large layout of very finely detailed narrative low reliefs in stone or alabaster, and originally painted, for palaces. The precisely defined reliefs concern royal affairs, chiefly hunting and war making. Power is given to animal forms, particularly horses and lions, which are remarkably represented in great detail. Human figures are comparatively exact and fixed but are also closely detailed, as in triumphal scenes of sieges, battles, and individual combat. Among the best known Assyrian reliefs are the lion-hunt alabaster carvings showing Ashurbanipal, which is in the British Museum.
The Assyrians made very little sculpture at all, except for colossal guardian figures, usually lions and winged beasts with bearded human heads, often the human-headed lamassu, which are sculpted in high relief on two sides of a rectangular block, with the heads effectively in the round (and also five legs, so that both views seem complete). These marked fortified royal gateways, an architectural form common throughout Asia Minor.
In Assyrian culture, lions represented forces opposed to the accomplishments of urban society. Artistic renderings of them being killed by Assyrian monarchs suggest the king's triumph over such alleged forces of evil. As in Egypt, lion hunts were events that regularly took place on palace grounds to show the king’s dominance also.
The artist in this relief was most likely trying to show to ennoble the lion to glorify their vanquisher, the