Assyrian Art: Human Headed Winged Lion and Bull (Lamassu)

Art History

Ancient Near East

Introduction
Prehistory: Proto-writing
Sumerian Art: Standard of Ur
Sumerian Art: Great Lyre from the "King's Grave" at Ur
Akkadian Art: Victory Stele of Naram-Sin
Babylonian Art: Law Code Stele of King Hammurabi
Assyrian Art: Human Headed Winged Lion and Bull (Lamassu)
Neo-Babylonian Art: Ishtar Gate and Processional Way

Assyrian Art: Human Headed Winged Lion and Bull (Lamassu) Human-headed winged lion and bull (lamassu), 883--859 B.C.E., Neo-Assyrian period, reign of Ashurnasirpal II, excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), northern Mesopotamia (Metropolitan Museum of Art) Speakers: Monica Hahn, Brian Seymour

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Assyrian Art: Human Headed Winged Lion and Bull (Lamassu)

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Okay, Monica and Brian in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Upstairs, in the Ancient Near Eastern section.
Right, we're here looking at some Assyrian art.
And you can't help, but be intimidated when you walk into this gallery with the presence of power.
You've got these huge sculptures planking these entrances, fantastic creatures.
Even in the 21st century in the safety of the museum, I feel a little intimidated.
They tower above you.
And these would be a gateway to the palace, is that right?
Right to the throne room of the king.
So the actual throne room is not outside the gate, but actually within the vault.
Correct.
Now I would think, someone walking into the palace-someone walking into the throne room would be an invited guest.
This is still to have them intimidated walking in?
Sure, even invited guests need to be reminded of the power of the King.
So, in addition to the scale here, where else would we get a clear indication of power?
The creatures themselves are very intimidating. They got the heads of men and the body of very powerful beasts.
Feline body on the one side and this bull's body on the other side.
That's interesting, you said creature.
So we walk up and you see the face of the King staring right out at you and there's one on either side.
So they're symmetrical.
You see the face of the King and it takes you a minute to notice that he is a creature, he is not the king.
That's right.
So the body is described as what? We've got a two different legs in the front.
So there are hoofs on the one on the right.
Right, some Bovine creature, and a feline creature with these claws paws on the left.
So from the front we're stopped by the king on this massive kind of beast looking figure.
Right.
Then as we walk into the space in between them, we notice they have wings.
That's right. So real composite fantastic creature.
So this was as you were saying, a symbol of power, in a sense of fantasy of the creature that would kind of puzzle people looking at them?
Sure.
So an intimidating factor of beguiling people with these images.
Right.
So as we walk pass them, we notice something quirky about the naturalism of the figures.
That's right. We look at them from the front. We see the two legs on either side.
And then when we move to the side, we see the all four legs.
So how many legs does that give us?
Wow, so that's five legs.
That's right.
So two distinctive views.
That's right. It's not meant to be seen obliquely.
You see it from the front, or you see it from the side. And it makes sense either way.
so from the front, you can imagine someone coming to the throne room and their progresses are rested
and they say, "Hey, stop." And as they walk through, the beasts kind of walks with them?
The beasts on either side makes visual sense when you're between them.
Because you can see all four legs as it should have.
If the legs were side by side as you see it from the front, the side view would only have three, and that wouldn't be satisfactory.
Ah, okay. So the figure is shown as if kind of in motion in order to show us the proper parts of the body.
So there's a lot of carving, a lot of detail in the wings and in the beard.
Right, and in the typical Mesopotamian fashion, we get this combination of naturalism and stylization.
So there's certain parts of the body that looks very naturalistic.
Those claws look like feline claws, we can even see some muscles.
But a lot of the details have been stylized, have been reduced to these repeated geometrical forms.
Like the hair and the beard, like the wings themselves.
So natural and supernatural, but also we get it in terms of the design.
So design elements that are looking maybe at nature,
but then the beard with all those little repeated lozenges and spirals; very decorative.
It is.
So would you consider this a typical guardian figure from the acient world?
Yes, and it conforms to a Mesopotamian convention of those stylized elements in the hair and the wings and so on
So if I'm remembering correctly, this is Assyrian art, and early Mesopotamian art wouldn't be quite so focused on the king, correct?
That's right. Earlier Mesopotamian art, such as Sumerian art, was much more focused on the Gods.
Oh, and the king as the servant to the Gods.
King as a representative of the Gods or the servant to Gods, not as God-like himself.
And here, interestingly, we have the head of the king,
and yet, what he's wearing on his head is that triple horned crown that is associated with the Gods.
Ah-ha. So pretty clear here, who we're supposed to bow down and worship.
The king himself.

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