# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Phidias and Polyclitus are the sculptors whose works had the most lasting influence in the short high-Classical period (ca. 450 - 420 BC) in Greece. Polyclitus was born in the city of Argos in the northern Peloponnese. His most famous statue was the "Doryphoros" ("Spear Bearer"), which perhaps depicted the hero Achilles. The bronze original was lost, but numerous Roman copies survived. The present statue depicts the athletic figure of a naked youth, who seems to have paused in mid-step. His weight rests on his right leg, while the left trails behind, touching the ground only with the toes. His right arm hangs freely, while the hand of his bent left forearm holds a spear. His head is turned slightly to the right. In his "Doryphoros" Polyclitus uses contrapposto, suggesting action and reaction, tension and relaxation, in a purposeful and exemplary manner. The written sources mention a theoretical work by Polyclitus, the "Canon" (Greek: Kanon), a name that was probably also used in antiquity for the statue of the Doryphoros. Exact measurement of the human body led Polyclitus to a system of proportions and numbers for the parts of the body that resulted in a symmetry, which in his opinion was responsible for the harmony and beauty of a work. The torso was acquired in 1824 from the collection of the Viennese eye specialist Joseph Barth. It has more slender proportions and less sculptural modelling of the musculature than may be assumed of the bronze original. In contrast to bronze statues, marble copies required cross-pieces and supports because of their great weight, and also to protect exposed parts of the body from breaking. Traces of cross-pieces to support the two arms are found over the left hip and the right thigh, which has at the back the remainder of a large support (tree-stump? with the remnant of a garment). Dowel holes on the right upper arm suggest that the statue may have been repaired in antiquity. © Kurt Gschwantler, Alfred Bernhard-Walcher, Manuela Laubenberger, Georg Plattner, Karoline Zhuber-Okrog, Masterpieces in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities. A Brief Guide to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2011

Additional Items

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Torso of Doryphoros - unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Phidias and Polyclitus are the sculptors whose works had the most lasting influence in the short high-Classical period (ca. 450 - 420 BC) in Greece. Polycl...

# data[].attributes.body
Periodo Áureo
Julia Prieto

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Aphrodite is leaning her left elbow on a tree-trunk; her left leg, which is not weight-bearing, is close to the right leg but somewhat advanced. The goddess is wearing a thin sleeved chiton, which appears to have slipped from her right shoulder and fits the body so closely that some parts - the stomach and legs, for example - appear to be naked. In an effective contrast to the transparent undergarment, the heavy masses of fabric from her mantle fall on the left to the ground, creating subtle interplay between the light marble and the dark folds of material. Her outstretched left hand perhaps held a pomegranate, while her right hand rested on her hip. Eros is standing on the tree-trunk in a diagonal counter-movement to Aphrodite. His figure is that of a slender youth. His legs crossed, he is nestling on his mother's shoulder, his right arm on her neck. Aphrodite's left forearm and left foot as well as Eros's wings were added in classical antiquity and, like the heads of the two figures, have not been preserved. There is great controversy about dating the statuette. The proposals range from the assumption that it is a Greek original of ca. 400 BC to the supposition that it is a new classicistic sculpture of the 1st century BC. The Greek sculpture on which it was based must have been created in the late 5th century BC by a successor of Phidias and served, particularly in Roman times, as the basis for numerous faithful and modified copies.
© Kurt Gschwantler, Alfred Bernhard-Walcher, Manuela Laubenberger, Georg Plattner, Karoline Zhuber-Okrog, Masterpieces in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities. A Brief Guide to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2011

Details

Title: Aphrodite and Eros

Creator: unknown

Date Created: 100 BC - 0 AD

Style: Roman-Classicistic

Provenance: In the 1st half of the 16th century in the possession of Federico II Gonzaga; displayed in a niche as a counterpart to a naked Venus in the Loggia dei Marmi, which Giulio Romano had built in the Palazzo Ducale of Mantua. It is also known as the "Aphrodite d'Este" because it later entered the Este collection, established in the 17th century at Catajo Castle near Este in Italy; Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities in 1923.

Physical Dimensions: h1140 cm (entire)

Inventory Number: ANSA I 1192

External Link: http://www.khm.at/en/collections/collection-of-greek-and-roman-antiquities

Additional Items

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Aphrodite and Eros - unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Aphrodite is leaning her left elbow on a tree-trunk; her left leg, which is not weight-bearing, is close to the right leg but somewhat advanced. The goddes...

# data[].attributes.body
Periodo Severo.
Julia Prieto

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Young Female Attendant - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This sculpture is probably one of a group of votary figures that originally accompanied the statue of a goddess. Although it dates from a century later tha...

# data[].attributes.body
Sofía Pérez Stoopen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Statue of Leda and the swan - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This group is a sculptural representation of the erotic theme of Leda and Zeus in the guise of a swan. Leda, nude, is depicted in the act of lifting up her...

# data[].attributes.body
Montse Pruvost

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
For decades, research on this slightly over life-size statue has focussed primarily on two questions. The first concerns the reconstruction of the lost pieces, including the support that once held up the left arm - for these would help complete the interpretation of the statue as a whole. The other question is whether the statue (acquired in Venice for the Berlin Antikensammlung) is a Greek original from the high Classical period and therefore follows the Parthenon pediments. If not, is it a workshop copy from this same period? Or is it a later Roman copy? The head, worked separately, is unfortunately lost, as is the neck, the left shoulder, the entire right arm, and the left arm below the elbow. Several restorations to the folds in the mantle and left knee suggest that the left foot and tortoise - the only preserved attributes - were also restored in the modern period. A support under the left elbow is now lost, but its base is still visible.
The goddess towers over the viewer, her robes accentuating rather than hiding her powerful body. The sensuality of the sculpture would certainly accord with its identification as Aphrodite. She wears a belted chiton with short, buttoned sleeves, and a mantle (himation) pulled around her lower body and thighs. Slung over her left arm, the mantle wraps around her hips before falling loosely beside her advanced left leg - providing a compositional accent to her raised left foot, propped upon a small tortoise. The restorer was right to make the prop a tortoise: Pausanias recounts that the Aphrodite Urania carved by Phidias for Elis had one foot set upon a tortoise (6, 25, 1), and that another Aphrodite Urania stood on the Kolonos Agoraios in Athens (1, 14, 7). Other statues depicting Aphrodite with a tortoise (a statue in Kyrene, for instance, and a relief in the Vatican) suggest that the Berlin Aphrodite once leant on a female herm rather than the archaistic idol that scholars had originally proposed. Indirect confirmation comes from the female herm excavated in the Agora in Athens. Female herms likely alluded to an eastern manifestation of Aphrodite and thus to her particular role as Aphrodite Urania. Despite attempts to complete the Berlin statue with a marble head found in the theatre at Arles, the chronology of the two pieces cannot be reconciled.
The statue's narrow hips, wide shoulders, and widely set breasts have lead some to compare the figure with the group of three goddesses on the east pediment of the Parthenon, or with a figure on the Erechtheion frieze in Athens (now in the Acropolis Museum). This in turn raises the question of whether the Berlin Aphrodite is a Greek original. Her provenance from a collection in Venice may speak for this possibility, since several originals did come to Venice from Greece in the seventeenth century. But more often it is the overall effect of the piece and the extraordinary quality of the preserved details, especially in the drapery, that time and again lead to the statue's acceptance as an original. Yet this statue displays none of the careful craftsmanship of an Attic original: the tool marks are clearly visible, as in the running drill channels in the folds of the chiton on the left side; and the head, arms, and supports were attached separately. The drapery, especially the himation, also lacks the liveliness expected of an original. In this light, she is probably a copy after one of the "Aphrodite with tortoise" statues mentioned by the ancient sources.

Details

Title: Aphrodite with tortoise

Creator: Original or marble copy after an original from the period around 430-420 BC

Date Created: Ca. 430-420 BC

Location: Probably from Attica

Physical Dimensions: h158 cm

Type: Statue

Medium: Pentelic marble

Object acquired: Brought to Venice in the seventeenth century; acquired for Berlin on the Venetian art market in 1892.

Inv.-No.: Sk 1459

ISIL-No.: DE-MUS-814319

External link: Altes Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Copyrights: Text: © Verlag Philipp von Zabern / Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Kun. || Photo: © b p k - || Photo Agency / Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Johannes Laurentius

Collection: Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Additional Items

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Aphrodite with tortoise - Original or marble copy after an original from the period around 430-420 BC - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For decades, research on this slightly over life-size statue has focussed primarily on two questions. The first concerns the reconstruction of the lost pie...

# data[].attributes.body
PERIODO SEVERO

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Dating to the late 4th century B.C.E., this finely modeled figure was originally part of a deep relief. A portion of the background may still be seen attached to the figure of the young man. Such funerary reliefs often included more than one figure in addition to that of the dead person; in this case, an older man, the youth's father, probably completes the group. That the young man was the dead person is indicated by his nude figure and military stance. He was shown in an idealized way as a hero, or one who had died bravely in battle. The rhythmic curves and contrappasto position are indicative of Late Classical Greek art, as is the air of timeless beauty and nobility.

Classical Greek sculpture celebrated the human body. In architectural sculptures such as the works ornamenting the Parthenon temple in Athens, or in single votive statues, the nude male figure achieved heroic beauty of form. In the later stages of classical Greek art, at the end of the 5th and during the 4th centuries B.C., the great families of Athens turned to a more private kind of art, the grave sculpture. These artistic memorials to the dead shared a general loosening of classic form and a more human, emotional approach to art. This figure of a young man comes from an elaborate grave memorial. Originally, the figure of the youth would have been framed by an architectural shrine that also included other figures, such as the boy's aged father. A very similar composition appears on the Ilissos relief (now in the National Museum in Athens) featuring an old man (the father) mourning his son (a nude athlete figure, like ours, but with head intact).

Here the young man stands in a contrapposto position, turning on the axis of his body and looking out of the sculptural space at the viewer. His nude body has the radiant purity of an athlete in his prime, although implicit in the work is a sense of tragedy, as the young man has died in the flower of youth and beauty. A monument of the high sculptural quality and considerable size, this was likely carved by a recognized master of the 4th century B.C.E.

**Adapted from**:

* Anne Bromberg, _Dallas Museum of Art: Selected Works_, ( Dallas, Texas: Dallas Museum of Art, 1983), 101.
* Anne Bromberg, "Figure of a young man from a funerary relief," in _Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection_, ed. Charles Venable ( New Haven, NJ: Yale University Press, 1997), 27.
* DMA unpublished material, Museum of Europe Label text, August 1993.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Figure of a young man from a funerary relief - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dating to the late 4th century B.C.E., this finely modeled figure was originally part of a deep relief. A portion of the background may still be seen attac...

# data[].attributes.body
Periodo severo Fatma González

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Figure - Anonymous - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"A Greek statue of a woman, representing a godess that could originally been Demeter, although the Punic world associated it to Astarte or Tanit. The woman...

# data[].attributes.body
Sofía Pérez

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Statue of a wounded warrior - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The torso constitutes the only ancient part of this prestigious and famous statue. It seems to be an optimal reworking of the Discobolos that Myron made in...

# data[].attributes.body
Andrea Verastegui
Periodo Áureo

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The west pediment of the Parthenon - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The central feature of the west pediment of the Parthenon was the colossal statues of Athena and Poseidon in contest for Athens and the land of Attica (the...

# data[].attributes.body
PERIODO AUREO

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Pericles lived from about 490-429 BCE during the golden age of Athens which has come to be known as the Age of Pericles in his honour. His life spanned from the time of the Greek victory over the Persians to the beginning of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. Mainly due to his extraordinary eloquence and his great political foresight, he played a considerable role in shaping the politics of Athens from the end of 460 BCE. He was elected strategos or general by the Assembly fifteen years in a row - one of the few offices that were actually elected in the Athenian democracy at this time. The strategos was not only in charge of military affairs but enjoyed administrative and financial powers too.Our portrait has been identified with the help of inscriptions on other replicas and shows Pericles wearing a Corinthian helmet pushed back on his head as a symbol of his military position. The face is modelled in even, smooth shapes; the beard and the hair, appearing from under the helmet, are carefully arranged in short curls. There are no personal traits that would have made an identification possible; rather this portrayal of Pericles is very similar to the images of Athenian citizens on grave reliefs with an idealised, relaxed expression. The well-proportioned face reveals no signs of emotion, which is consistent with Plutarch's description of his self-control in his biography of Pericles. Both in life and in art, it would seem that he reflected contemporary ideals of how politicians should conduct themselves. Pausanias mentions a statue of Pericles on the Acropolis of Athens in his Description of Greece from the 2nd century CE. The head of this statue was most likely the model for the numerous Roman copies that were made, including the Berlin portrait. The original statue stood near the propylaea, which meant that on entering the Acropolis, visitors immediately saw the statue of the man who had not only shaped the policy of Athens but had also been involved in the design of the sanctuary itself. Most importantly, he initiated the construction of the Parthenon, the great symbol of Athens' political prowess. We can thus learn much about the sitter from both the manner in which he is portrayed and the site of the statue.

Details

Title: Portrait of Pericles

Creator: Unknown

Date Created: -430

Location: Lesbos

Physical Dimensions: h54 cm

Object acquired: Acquired on the art market in 1901

Inv.-No.: Sk 1530

ISIL-No.: DE-MUS-814319

External link: Altes Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Copyrights: Text: © Verlag Philipp von Zabern / Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Brigitte Knittlmayer Audio: © Tonwelt / Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz || Photo: © b p k - || Photo Agency / Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Johannes Laurentius

Collection: Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Portrait of Pericles - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Pericles lived from about 490-429 BCE during the golden age of Athens which has come to be known as the Age of Pericles in his honour. His life spanned fro...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In 1986 a research project into the casting and moulding techniques used for the "Youth from the Magdalensberg" produced surprising results: the statue, which had been considered the most important Roman find in the eastern Alps, is not the antique original but a cast copy from the 16th century. Found in 1502 by peasants who were ploughing on the Magdalensberg in Carinthia (southern Austria), the original statue came to Salzburg at the instigation of Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg. The first reproduction, a woodcut, was published in 1534. In 1542 the Salzburg painter Hans Bocksberger the Elder painted a fresco of it in the residence of the Bavarian archdukes at Landshut. In 1551 the chapter of canons at Salzburg Cathedral complied with a request by Ferdinand I and presented the statue to the king (the record has been preserved). A cast replica was made for Salzburg, but as time passed knowledge of this occurrence was lost. Thus when the copy entered Vienna's Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities in 1806, it was considered to be the antique original, which unfortunately has been lost. There is evidence, however, that it may have gone to Spain, where an identical statue of the youth was recorded in the 17th century (the original?) but was lost in the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars. The most important indications that the statue is a Renaissance copy are the technique of casting, which is different from that of classical antiquity, and analyses of the bronze alloy and the casting core. This technique is responsible for the relative thickness of the bronze and the fact that the statue could be cast in one piece. Neither the exact year (after 1551) nor the workshop where the statue was made is known. The original is considered a work of Roman ideal sculpture from the 1st century BC and is modelled on Classical Greek sculpture. According to the inscription on the right thigh, which it is assumed was also on the original, the statue at Magdalensberg was erected at the behest of two freed men, Aulus Poblicius Antiocus and Tiberius Barbius Tiberi[a]nus. © Kurt Gschwantler, Alfred Bernhard-Walcher, Manuela Laubenberger, Georg Plattner, Karoline Zhuber-Okrog, Masterpieces in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities. A Brief Guide to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2011

Details

Title: Youth from the Magdalensberg

Creator: unknown

Date Created: 1501 - 1600

Style: Cast copy of a Romanoriginal (16th century)

Provenance: The copy entered Vienna's Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities in 1806

Place Part Of: Austria

Physical Dimensions: h1850 cm (entire)

Inventory Number: ANSA VI 1

Excavation (lost original): Magdalensberg, Austria

Copy after: Roman ideal sculpture from the 1st century BC, modelled on Classical Greek sculpture

External Link: http://www.khm.at/en/collections/collection-of-greek-and-roman-antiquities

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Youth from the Magdalensberg - unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 1986 a research project into the casting and moulding techniques used for the "Youth from the Magdalensberg" produced surprising results: the statue, wh...

# data[].attributes.body
Montse Pruvost

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The sculptor Polykleitos made his statue of a discus thrower out of bronze. The marble head in Berlin, broken off at the neck from a full-length body now lost, numbers among the Roman-period copies which explicitly reproduce the qualities of the original bronze. One such telltale trait is the incised outlining of the facial features: the line at the edges of the lips imitates the juncture where the bronze flesh of the face met the copper inlay of the mouth. Likewise, the circles traced around the irises reflect the original bronze's inlaid eyes. Even the eyelids and eyebrows are sharply defined, these latter recalling the inlaid copper eyebrows which lent an additional touch of colour to bronze statues. The handling of the hair also imitates bronze technique with its fine chasing. Closely following the Polykleitan original in these respects, the Roman artist of the Hadrianic period nonetheless reinterpreted the model in one major respect: by adding two wings to the head, he gave it a new identity as Hermes or Hypnos.
The theory that the original Polykleitan subject was a discus thrower stems from a copy considered quite close to the original and now in the Museo Torlonia in Rome. Holding a discus in his left hand, the athlete of Polykleitos differs from that of Myron - already famous in the ancient period - in that he is not shown winding up for the throw. Rather, he embodies a formula that the sculptor had apparently already conceived for his early work: the image of the nude athlete at rest. The head is structured around strong verticals and a smooth but pronounced curve to the cheeks. The mouth, nose, and eyes lie close together, but are not yet connected in the clearly proportioned facial structure seen in the head of the Doryphoros two decades later. While the hair on the Doryphoros spirals outward from the center, giving it the characteristic "pinwheel" on the back of the head, the discus thrower's hair is arrayed in a rich play of curls. They nestle closely against the head and grow thicker at the temples, the lunate locks abutting and overlapping each other like a tile roof. In contrast to other copies of the head, the "pincer" locks over the forehead are very small; the sculptor seems to have taken care to avoid any repetitive pattern of locks across the forehead and temples.

Details

Title: A Roman take on Polykleitos

Creator: Marble copy after a Greek original around 460 BC

Date Created: Ca. 460 BC

Physical Dimensions: h24.8 cm

Object acquired: Acquired on the art market in 1930

Inv.-No.: Sk 1833

ISIL-No.: DE-MUS-814319

External link: Altes Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Copyrights: Text: © Verlag Philipp von Zabern / Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Kun. || Photo: © b p k - || Photo Agency / Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Collection: Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Roman take on Polykleitos - Marble copy after a Greek original around 460 BC - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The sculptor Polykleitos made his statue of a discus thrower out of bronze. The marble head in Berlin, broken off at the neck from a full-length body now l...

# data[].attributes.body
Periodo áureo

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Marbury Hall Zeus - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Portrayed as a mature bearded man, Zeus sits enthroned in his role as king of the gods. Originally he would have held his attributes: a scepter and a thund...

# data[].attributes.body
Sofia Agost Carreño

# data[].attributes.body
Begoña Maciel

Arte: cylinder seal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'Scarlet Ware' jar - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The jar is decorated in red and black paint with chariot and banquet scenes and attendant musicians (one plays a bull-headed lyre, similar to the 'Queen's ...

# data[].attributes.body
Sofia Agost Carreño

# data[].attributes.body
Sofia Agost Carreño

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
"Tell Minis" type lustre-ware bowl with human-headed winged lion - unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Metallic lustre-painting and glazes made opaque with tin are two of the great inventions of the potters of the Islamic world, technologies which later spre...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Limestone statue from the shrine of Hendursag - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Leonard Woolley discovered this statue in a niche facing the entrance to a small shrine within the residential area of Ur. With it he found a mace head ins...

# data[].attributes.body
Hunting dog

This statue, along with a second that is not fully preserved, most likely framed the entrance to the sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia on the Acropolis. Marble from the island of Paros.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hunting dog. - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This statue, along with a second that is not fully preserved, most likely framed the entrance to the sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia on the Acropolis. Marbl...

# data[].attributes.body
Escultura Large bottle

# data[].attributes.body
Regina Ramos

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ziggurat, seen from the north - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore collections and stories from around the world with Google Arts & Culture.

# data[].attributes.body
Montse Pruvost

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This is one of a pair of guardian figures set up in the palace of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC) at the Assyrian capital Kalhu. Its partner is now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

Stone sculptures of mythological figures, sculpted in relief or in the round, were often placed as guardians at gateways to palaces and temples in ancient Mesopotamia. These figures were known to the Assyrians as lamassu. They were designed to protect the palace from demonic forces, and may even have guarded the entrance to the private apartments of the king. The figure has five legs, so that when viewed from the front it stands firm, while when viewed from the side it appears to be striding forward to combat evil. The 'Standard Inscription' of Ashurnasirpal, common to many of his reliefs, is inscribed between the figure's legs. It records the King's titles, ancestry and achievements.

The figure was excavated by Austen Henry Layard, who worked in Assyria between 1845 and 1851. He suggested that these composite creatures combined the strength of the lion (or in this case, the bull), the swiftness of birds indicated by the wings, and the intelligence of the human head. The helmet with horns indicates the creature's divinity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Colossal statue of a winged human-headed bull from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This is one of a pair of guardian figures set up in the palace of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC) at the Assyrian capital Kalhu. Its partner is now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Stone sculptures of mythological figures, sculpted in relief or in the round, were often placed as guardians at gateways to palaces and temples in ancient Mesopotamia.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This bronze model of a city wall comes from Toprakkale (ancient Rusahinili) in Urartu, the site of a major temple of the god Haldi. Urartian texts show that Haldi was the principal deity of the Urartian pantheon, always named first in the trinity with Teisheba (storm god) and Shiwini (sun god).The function of the model is not known. It could have been dedicated in the temple to ensure the protection of the city, or presented by a vassal city (as depicted on some Assyrian relief sculpture). Equally it could have been part of a wheeled hearth similar to one found at Nimrud in Assyria. Urartu, centred on Lake Van, was the northern neighbour and rival of the Assyrian empire during the ninth to the seventh centuries BC and adopted many of the artistic traditions of Mesopotamia. The architectural details on the model provide information about fortifications of this time. They include a double-winged gate that arches at the top; rectangular windows; stepped battlements; and a high, narrow tower. The lower part of the walls and the window frames would have been made of beautifully cut and fitted stone blocks. The upper part of the wall would have been of mud brick and the parapets rested on jutting beams. The kingdom of Urartu had disappeared before 600 BC, possibly destroyed by raids of horse-borne warriors known to the Greeks as Scythians, associated with the Medes from western Iran. The name survives, however, in that of its highest mountain, Ararat.

Details

Title: Bronze model of a city wall

Date Created: -799/-700

Physical Dimensions: Height: 28.00cm; Width: 36.00cm

External Link: British Museum collection online

Registration number: 1877,1218.1

Place: Excavated/Findspot Toprakkale

Period/culture: Urartian

Material: copper alloy

Copyright: Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum

Acquisition: Purchased from Layard, Austen Henry

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bronze model of a city wall - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This bronze model of a city wall comes from Toprakkale (ancient Rusahinili) in Urartu, the site of a major temple of the god Haldi. Urartian texts show that Haldi was the principal deity of the Urartian pantheon, always named first in the trinity with Teisheba (storm god) and Shiwini (sun god).The function of the model is not known.

# data[].attributes.body
Bajo relieve

# data[].attributes.body
Regina Ramos

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Female Figurine - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore collections and stories from around the world with Google Arts & Culture.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This panel probably shows part of two independent compositions, in upper and lower registers. The upper scene may represent parkland in the vicinity of Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, the kind of landscape created by Sennacherib (reigned 704-681 BC), Ashurbanipal's grandfather. Water is brought from the right, across an aqueduct, and distributed through several channels. Remains of the actual arches of Assyrian aqueducts are still visible in northern Iraq. The pavilion, with its elaborate columns, is a type of architecture that was probably introduced from Syria. Within the gardens is an Assyrian stela, similar to a stela of Ashurnasirpal II now in The British Museum. The three rows in the lower register show soldiers from Iran, possibly the area known as Elam, to the south-east of Mesopotamia. While Elamites are usually shown as enemies of the Assyrians, here they do not appear to be under attack or defeated. There were warring factions in Elam, and whichever of them was losing seems to have looked to Assyria for support. Iranian soldiers also served in the Assyrian army. This then, is probably an expedition on which the Assyrians posed as liberators, in order to gain military and/or political advantage.

Details

Title: Stone panel from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal (Room H, nos. 7-9)

Date Created: -645/-635

Physical Dimensions: Height: 132.08cm; Width: 58.42cm

External Link: British Museum collection online

Subject: park; aqueduct/viaduct; soldier

Registration number: 1856,0909.36

Place: Excavated/Findspot North Palace

Period/culture: Neo-Assyrian

Material: gypsum

Copyright: Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum

Authority: Ruler Ashurbanipal

Acquisition: Excavated by Rassam, Hormuzd. Excavated by Rawlinson, Henry Creswicke. Excavated by Loftus, William Kennett. Excavated by Taylor, John George

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Stone panel from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal (Room H, nos. 7-9) - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This panel probably shows part of two independent compositions, in upper and lower registers. The upper scene may represent parkland in the vicinity of Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, the kind of landscape created by Sennacherib (reigned 704-681 BC), Ashurbanipal's grandfather. Water is brought from the right, across an aqueduct, and distributed through several channels.

# data[].attributes.body
Palacio de Mari

Está ubicado en la actual Siria, dentro de la ciudad de Mari, a corta distancia al oeste del Río Éufrates

Tiene una gran extensión, cerca de 2,5 hectáreas. Se han hallado restos de más de 260 habitaciones y muchos pasadizos. Estaba dividido entre un espacio privado, uno público y otro sagrado.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ziggurat with excavation heaps - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Borsippa's ziggurat with excavation heaps in the foreground, was always dependent on nearby Babylon.

# data[].attributes.body
Arte Mesopotamico

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Standard of Ur is a wonderful example of Mesopotamian artistic achievement that reveals a wealth of information about one of the world's great ancient civilisations. This object was discovered by the archaeologist C. Leonard Woolley during excavations at ancient Ur (modern Tell al-Muqayyar), in southern Mesopotamia (south Iraq). The most spectacular discoveries at Ur were made within a cemetery of the Early Dynastic III period (c. 2600-2300 BC), that Woolley named 'The Royal Cemetery'. Here, among hundreds of more modest burials, were sixteen graves that he distinguished as 'Royal Tombs' because of their construction, abundance of grave goods and evidence of elaborate burial rituals and human sacrifice. The Standard was discovered in the corner of one of the tomb chambers of a Royal Tomb (PG 779) that had been thoroughly robbed in antiquity.
It was named at the time of its discovery by Leonard Woolley who initially proposed that it may have been carried on a pole like a battle standard, but its original function is unknown. The two rectangular panels of engraved shell figures and mosaic tesserae of lapis lazuli, red limestone, and shell were originally attached to wood that did not survive being buried in a tomb for thousands of years. These two panels which are sometimes referred to as 'War' and 'Peace' were discovered lying back-to-back and crushed, with some of the pieces displaced. The shape of the wooden mount that these panels are fixed on today is based on Woolley's suggestion that there were also two truncated triangular shaped end panels. However, the arrangement of the inlays on the end panels is speculative.
The Standard is an excellent example of Mesopotamian narrative art; the scenes illustrate a story or a sequence of events. It is almost certain that what is shown on the two main panels of the Standard are consecutive episodes of the same story - the end of a victorious battle of a king of Ur and the banquet or ritual celebrations after the battle.

Details

Title: The Standard of Ur

Date Created: -2500/-2500

Physical Dimensions: Height: 21.70-22.00cm; Length: 50.40cm; Width: 11.60cm (end; base); Width: 5.60cm (end; top)

External Link: British Museum collection online

Technique: inlaid

Subject: animal; fish; king/queen; charioteer/chariot

Registration number: 1928,1010.3

Place: Excavated/Findspot Royal Cemetery

Period/culture: Early Dynastic III

Material: shell; limestone; lapis lazuli; bitumen

Copyright: Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum

Acquisition: Excavated by Woolley, Charles Leonard. Division of Finds Department of Antiquities of Iraq

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Standard of Ur - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Standard of Ur is a wonderful example of Mesopotamian artistic achievement that reveals a wealth of information about one of the world's great ancient civilisations. This object was discovered by the archaeologist C. Leonard Woolley during excavations at ancient Ur (modern Tell al-Muqayyar), in southern Mesopotamia (south Iraq).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore collections and stories from around the world with Google Arts & Culture.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Lama Deity - Assyrian - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Mesopotamian lama deities were kind, protective spirits associated with the great sun god Shamash. This deity is depicted with a sensitive face, luxurious ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
-Altar de Pérgamo. 190 a.C -Estilo griego helenístico.En esta étapa la anatomía representa la expresividad. Se observa el dolor y posee un mayor movimiento.

This user gallery has been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Altar de Pérgamo. 190 a.C -Estilo griego helenístico.En esta étapa la anatomía representa la expresividad. Se observa el dolor y posee un mayor movimiento. This user gallery has been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Limestone plaque - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Square stone plaques with holes through the centre, and carved in relief, are typical objects of the Early Dynastic period in southern Mesopotamia (2900-23...

# data[].attributes.body
Arquitectura Mesopotamia (zigurat)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ziggurat 'tongue tower' at Borsippa - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore collections and stories from around the world with Google Arts & Culture.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sumerian worshipper (Praying statuette) - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Praying statues provide us with a snapshot of the ruling classes of the Sumerian society. This statuette is part of this sculptural trend, which was repeat...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ziggurat with the remains of an adjoining temple to God Nabu - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The ziggurat at Borsippa with the remains of an adjoining temple to the God Nabu, son of the supreme Babylonian God Marduk.

# data[].attributes.body
Escultura de bulto

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This limestone figure is one of a pair set up outside a doorway in the Temple of Nabu, the Mesopotamian god of writing, and dedicated to him. The statue clearly represents a god since he wears the horned headdress that all Mesopotamian gods are shown wearing, but it is unlikely to be Nabu; the position of the hands suggests a divine servant. The inscription mentions King Adad-nirari III (reigned 811-783 BC) and the queen mother Sammuramat, clearly a forceful character whose name was remembered in the Greek period, when she surfaces as the legendary Queen Semiramis. This is a rare indication of the power sometimes held by women at the Assyrian court, usually behind the scenes. Queens, like any women, were seldom represented in sculpture; one exception is the queen who is depicted on a stone relief from the palace of Ashurbanipal, in the later Assyrian capital of Nineveh. Sculptured monuments were normally commissioned by the king, but this one was erected by the governor of Nimrud. This happened at a time when senior officials, probably eunuchs, were in a powerful position following a rebellion crushed by Adad-nirari's father and Sammuramat's husband, Shamshi-Adad V (reigned 824-811 BC).

Details

Title: Stone figure of an attendant god

Date Created: -810/-800

Physical Dimensions: Height: 182.88cm

External Link: British Museum collection online

Technique: carved

Subject: deity; attendant

Registration number: 1856,0909.65

Place: Excavated/Findspot Temple of Nabu

Period/culture: Neo-Assyrian

Material: limestone

Copyright: Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum

Authority: Ruler Adad-nirari III

Acquisition: Excavated by Rassam, Hormuzd. Excavated by Rawlinson, Henry Creswicke. Excavated by Loftus, William Kennett. Excavated by Taylor, John George

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Stone figure of an attendant god - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This limestone figure is one of a pair set up outside a doorway in the Temple of Nabu, the Mesopotamian god of writing, and dedicated to him. The statue clearly represents a god since he wears the horned headdress that all Mesopotamian gods are shown wearing, but it is unlikely to be Nabu; the position of the hands suggests a divine servant.

# data[].attributes.body
Arquitectura mesopotamica

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
During excavations in the precinct of the temple of Eanna at Uruk (southern Iraq), archaeologists discovered the remains of an isolated temple dedicated to the Sumerian goddess Inanna (Ishtar). From the evidence of a brick inscription its construction can be dated to the reign of the Kassite ruler Kara-indash. The outer façade of the rectangular building, measuring 22.5 by 17.5 m, which stood until the Seleucid period (4th-3rd centuries BCE), was articulated with niches. Fragments of moulded bricks found in the temple precinct were identified as belonging to the base of the edifice. For the museum display the entrance to the temple with its decoration has been reconstructed from the original fragments: alternating male and female deities hold in their hands small vessels from which water pours out in snaking lines. While the bearded male gods wear garments with a scale motif (symbolizing mountains), the clothes of the female deities are decorated with vertical wavy lines (symbolizing water). This image of the water-giving (and thus life-giving) gods can be explained in some detail: the mountain gods and water goddesses personify as the source of life the water supplies secured in Southern Mesopotamia. In this symbolic representation water constantly pours out and comes together to form streams that descend from the mountains (represented by the great scale-like symbols between the niches) which flow to the plains and so secure human existence. The iconography would also seem to refer to the origins of the Kassites, the foreigners from the eastern mountains who ruled Babylon for centuries.

Details

Title: Façade of the Inanna Temple

Creator: Unknown

Date Created: Late 15th century BCE

Location: Uruk/Warka (Middle East)

Physical Dimensions: w9.75 x h2.11 cm ((with base, incl. doorway))

Type: Architecture

Inv. no.: VA 10983

ISIL no.: DE-MUS-815718

External link: Pergamonmuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Copyrights: Foto © bpk - Foto Agency / Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz / Olaf M. Teßmer || Text: © Scala Publishers / Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Ralf-B. Wartke

Collection: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Façade of the Inanna Temple - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
During excavations in the precinct of the temple of Eanna at Uruk (southern Iraq), archaeologists discovered the remains of an isolated temple dedicated to the Sumerian goddess Inanna (Ishtar). From the evidence of a brick inscription its construction can be dated to the reign of the Kassite ruler Kara-indash.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Pot with Whorl Design - Japanese - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This pot dates to the middle of the Jomon period (c. 3000-2000 BC), which was Japan's Neolithic era. Jomon translates to "vines or cords," and the period g...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Shango priests store the deity's thunderbolts (Neolithic celts or axe heads), kola nuts, food offerings, oshe Shango, and other ritual paraphernalia in a calabash bowl that is placed on an upturned mortar. In the Igbomina and Ekiti areas, Shango shrines are adorned with large sculpted arugba, or bowl carriers, as exemplified by the Dallas arugba Shango that depicts a seated female holding a lidded bowl above her head (fig. 33).

The central figure in a caryatid vessel is always a female, depicted either kneeling or seated on a mortar, holding a large lidded bowl above her head with both hands. She represents a devotee who has petitioned Shango for the blessing of a child. That her prayer was answered is indicated by the figure's swollen abdomen and/or by one of the smaller figures carved at either side. The smaller figures on this sculpture are holding ritual objects. The one on her left carries an oshe Shango in one hand and a stockfish in the other, while the figure on her right clasps a bowl. The faces carved in relief on the lid and bowl held by the central figure refer to a ritual practice in which a devotee touches his or her forehead with a kola nut and then repeats this action on the sculpted faces. The face carved on the lid looks toward the viewer; the face on the bowl is placed upside down to look toward the sky world. The faces are darkened with blue paint, traditionally natural indigo pigment, in reference to the ori inu, or the seat of one's destiny in one's "inner head." The bowl itself is thought to be a metaphor for the womb, which Shango can fill with a new life if the devotee is faithful to him.(18)

This arugba Shango was carved by Akobi Ogun Fakeye (c. 1870-1946), whose name means "the first born of Ogun," the Yoruba god of iron and the patron saint of woodcarvers. Akobi Ogun was the son of a sculptor but chose not to carve. According to his son Lamidi Olonade Fakeye (b. 1925), an internationally known sculptor whose work is installed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Akobi Ogun contracted smallpox when he was about twenty years old. Ifa divination revealed that Akobi Ogun's destiny was to follow the "family work of woodcarving" and because he had denied his destiny, he was punished with smallpox. After making sacrificial food offerings to Ogun, Akobi Ogun entered into an apprenticeship with a master sculptor named Tayewo who lived in the town Ila Orangun. Three years later, Akobi Ogun established his own atelier.(19) Akobi Ogun Fakeye carved at least two other arugba Shango, one of which is in a German private collection (20) and the other in a British private collection.(21)

The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art, cat. 30, pp. 112-113.

18. Drewal, Henry John, and John Pemberton III, with Rowland Abiodun. Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. Edited by Allen Wardwell. New York: Center for African Art, in association with Harry N. Abrams, 1989. pp. 155, fig. 169, and pp. 162-163, fig. 170.
Compare for an arugba Shango carved by Arowgun (areogun) of Osi-Ilorin.

19. Haight, Bruce, and Lamidi Olonade Fakeye. Lamidi Olonade Fakeye: African Sculptor of the Twentieth Century. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Western Michigan University, 1987. p. 38.

20. Abiodun, Rowland, Henry John Drewal, and John Pemberton III. Yoruba: Art and Aesthetics. Edited by Lorenz Homberger. Zurich: Rietberg Museum; New York: Center for African Art, 1991. p. 27, fig. 34.

21. Jones, David. Poets with Adzes: An Introduction to Yoruba Religious Art. Ipswich, England: Museums and Galleries, 1988. p. 25, cat. no. 414.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Caryatid vessel (arugba Shango) - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Shango priests store the deity's thunderbolts (Neolithic celts or axe heads), kola nuts, food offerings, oshe Shango, and other ritual paraphernalia in a calabash bowl that is placed on an upturned mortar.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fragmentary Neolithic standing female figurine - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Though little is known about the use of many Neolithic figures, scholars are certain that this engaging female figure was associated with fertility. Rather...

# data[].attributes.body
Valeria Prieto (tube (cong) with masks)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tube (cong) with masks - Artist: Liangzhu culture - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore collections and stories from around the world with Google Arts & Culture.

# data[].attributes.body
Valeria Prieto (jarrón con cabeza humana)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Jar with human head - Artist: Machang culture - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore collections and stories from around the world with Google Arts & Culture.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The first of two extremely similar early x-ray birds is under paintings of human figures.

Details

Title: Early X-ray bird and human figure

Creator: Unknown

Date Created: -2000/-0001

More Info: Archaeology journal, Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit

Finding: Djulirri, Western Arnhem Land

Culture: The Djulirri rock art site is located in the Wellington Range of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. It forms part of the Maung language group's traditional territory and is located at the western side of senior traditional owner Ronald Lamilami's Namunidjbuk clan estate. Across a 52 m length of dissected sandstone, Djulirri's main gallery was found to contain more than 1100 paintings, 17 stencils, one print, and 46 figures made from native beeswax in three adjacent wall/ceiling areas. There are a further 52 panels with at least another 2000 examples of rock art, making it the largest known pigment site yet documented in Australia. The site is arranged in a horseshoe-like shape measuring about 180 m by 120 m, oriented roughly northwest-southeast, with a cluster of other sites nearby. Paintings made with combinations of red, yellow, white and black pigment, typical of the region's recent rock art, including introduced contact period subject matter, are concentrated in Djulirri's main shelter and the rest of the southern wing of the horseshoe. Representative subject matter of all previous Arnhem Land rock art forms and styles is concentrated in the northern wing, with a few mixed panels towards the back. It is within the main shelter that most of the beeswax art can also be found. A few of these designs lie over or under painted depictions of watercraft, including European tall ships and Southeast Asian sailing vessels (praus). This allowed us to use radiocarbon dating to obtain minimum or maximum ages for some diagnostic contact period paintings superimposed over or under the beeswax figures. The site was intensively documented between 2008-2011 by a Griffith University led team of archaeologists and local Aboriginal people as part of Picturing Change, an Australian-wide investigation into contact period rock art.

Type: painting

Additional Items

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Early X-ray bird and human figure - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The first of two extremely similar early x-ray birds is under paintings of human figures. Details Title: Early X-ray bird and human figure Creator: Unknown Date Created: -2000/-0001 More Info: Archaeology journal, Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit Finding: Djulirri, Western Arnhem Land Culture: The Djulirri rock art site is located in the Wellington Range of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This small handaxe from Bed IV in Olduvai Gorge is one of the most beautiful in the British Museum. It is made from quartz with attractive amethyst banding, a difficult material from which to make tools because it is extremely hard. The toolmaker would have had to hit with considerable force and accuracy to remove flakes and irregularities in the crystal structure could cause faulty removals. Such a high degree of difficulty makes the thin symmetrical shape of this piece a masterpiece of the toolmakers' art. After roughing out the basic form of this handaxe, the maker went on to refine its shape, straighten its edges and thin it down. This added little to its usefulness: a simple, sharp quartz flake would have worked as well. It suggests that the skill invested in producing such beautiful and sometimes very large handaxes may have had other purposes. Perhaps some pieces were status symbols or part of courtship rituals used to attract a mate. Certainly such artefacts go beyond simple needs and functional demands. They suggest that early humans could envisage a certain end product and use it as a form of symbolic communication. In this sense, handaxes may be said to represent the earliest indication of artistic endeavour.

Details

Title: Stone handaxe

Physical Dimensions: Height: 136.00mm; Width: 77.00mm; Depth: 41.00mm

External Link: British Museum collection online

Registration number: 1934,1214.83

Place: Excavated/Findspot Olduvai Gorge

Period/culture: Lower Palaeolithic

Material: quartz

Copyright: Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum

Acquisition: Collected by Leakey, Louis Seymour Bazett. With contribution from British Museum. With contribution from Royal Geographical Society. With contribution from Royal Society. With contribution from Cambridge University

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This small handaxe from Bed IV in Olduvai Gorge is one of the most beautiful in the British Museum. It is made from quartz with attractive amethyst banding, a difficult material from which to make tools because it is extremely hard.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
wide mouth storage jar with bands and lozenge-spiral design - neolithic - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore collections and stories from around the world with Google Arts & Culture.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Neolithic Double-spine Stone Blade - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In a shape similar to the Chinese character "凸", this blade has two spines and one cutting edge, which bears apparent traces of having been used. Polished ...

# data[].attributes.body
Sofía Agost Carreño

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Paleolithic Age. 29,500 years. Willendorf in Wachau, Lower Austria.

The perfection of the representation and harmonious style make the 29,500-year-old figure of the "Venus of Willendorf" one of the most expressive works of art from the Paleolithic Age.

ENIGMATIC ICON
"It was a beautiful August morning in 1908 when the 'Venus of Willendorf' returned to the light of day in Wachau, after four thousand years of slumber. She was discovered in Szombathy's and my presence at a depth of around 25 cm below the undisturbed ash layer near a large hearth (the 9th and uppermost occupation layer) ..." is how Josef Bayer, one of the excavation directors, described the discovery of the most famous prehistoric female figure in the Neue Wiener Tagblatt.
The Venus of Willendorf was found in 1908 during a NHM archeological dig. There was much lively controversy in subsequent years about who was involved in the discovery, and to what extent. At the time, the statuette was the oldest complete human figure, and is still a frequently cited example of the female principle.
The figure of a mature woman was carved out of fine limestone with flint tools, and was originally coated with red chalk. In the Paleolithic Age, red was a symbol of life, death and rebirth. Despite the small size, many details are reproduced with remarkable realism. Thin arms decorated with serrated arm rings rest on the heavy breasts. The slightly inclined head has an elaborate hairstyle or basket weave cap.
Its curious lack of any facial features elevates the Venus of Willendorf above the individual, at the same time giving it a multitude of faces. Rather than depicting a specific individual, it is the bearer of a universal message which was understood throughout Europe in its time, but will be hidden from us forever.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Venus of Willendorf - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Paleolithic Age. 29,500 years. Willendorf in Wachau, Lower Austria. The perfection of the representation and harmonious style make the 29,500-year-old figure of the "Venus of Willendorf" one of the most expressive works of art from the Paleolithic Age.

# data[].attributes.body
Sofía Agost Carreño

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The natural pigments has been present since the early days of mankind, forming part of the daily life such as colorants, possibly for the dresses skins and...

# data[].attributes.body
Sofía Agost Carreño

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Decorated bone rod from a fragment of the shaft of a left metatarsal of Cervus elaphus ( Red Deer). Decorated on its outer face with a stylised and naturalistic figure of an incised deer, consisting of the head, the beginning of the chest and body and the line of the neck and back. This central figure, drawn with lines of distinct composition and intensity, is accompanied by earlier lines which have been partially reused for this figure. This decorated rod, due to its obviously schematic style and date, fits in with the artistic sequence of the last stages of the Upper Palaeolithic, in the Spanish Mediterranean area.
This is an important find as it widens the geographic context of Levantine Schematic art, as until a few years ago this style of artwork was not found in this area. Furthermore, in respect to the naturalist zoomorphic themes, it demonstrates the continuity of this art form from the last stages of the Upper Palaeolithic to the first stages of the Initial Epipalaeolithic.
C.S.: 1233
VILLAVERDE BONILLA, V., 1985.

Details

Title: Engraved rod

Creator: Unknown

Date Created: Upper PalaeolithicEnd Late Magdalense Period

Place Part Of: Moraira, Teulada (Alicante/Alacant, Spain)

Physical Dimensions: w1.13 x h11.4 x d0.71 cm

Finding: Cova de les Cendres, Moraira, Teulada (Alicante/Alacant, Spain)

Denominación: Vareta grabada

Rights: Museo Arqueológico Provincial de Alicante. MARQ, Museo Arqueológico de Alicante MARQ

External Link: http://www.marqalicante.com/Paginas/es/FICHA-PIEZA-P142-M3.html

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Engraved rod - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Decorated bone rod from a fragment of the shaft of a left metatarsal of Cervus elaphus ( Red Deer). Decorated on its outer face with a stylised and naturalistic figure of an incised deer, consisting of the head, the beginning of the chest and body and the line of the neck and back.

# data[].attributes.body
Bego Maciel

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Amygdaloid engraved seal - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Amygdaloid seal engraved with the image of an octopus, with four of its eight legs readily discernible and complete with suckers. The octopus appears to be...

# data[].attributes.body
Bego Maciel

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bracelet - Liangzhu culture - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore collections and stories from around the world with Google Arts & Culture.

# data[].attributes.body
Bego Maciel

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Two paired solid yellow goannas are over red paintings but under rows of beeswax pellets.

Details

Title: Yellow goannas

Creator: Unknown

Date Created: 1860/1940

More Info: Archaeology journal, Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit

Finding: Djulirri, Western Arnhem Land

Culture: The Djulirri rock art site is located in the Wellington Range of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. It forms part of the Maung language group's traditional territory and is located at the western side of senior traditional owner Ronald Lamilami's Namunidjbuk clan estate. Across a 52 m length of dissected sandstone, Djulirri's main gallery was found to contain more than 1100 paintings, 17 stencils, one print, and 46 figures made from native beeswax in three adjacent wall/ceiling areas. There are a further 52 panels with at least another 2000 examples of rock art, making it the largest known pigment site yet documented in Australia. The site is arranged in a horseshoe-like shape measuring about 180 m by 120 m, oriented roughly northwest-southeast, with a cluster of other sites nearby. Paintings made with combinations of red, yellow, white and black pigment, typical of the region's recent rock art, including introduced contact period subject matter, are concentrated in Djulirri's main shelter and the rest of the southern wing of the horseshoe. Representative subject matter of all previous Arnhem Land rock art forms and styles is concentrated in the northern wing, with a few mixed panels towards the back. It is within the main shelter that most of the beeswax art can also be found. A few of these designs lie over or under painted depictions of watercraft, including European tall ships and Southeast Asian sailing vessels (praus). This allowed us to use radiocarbon dating to obtain minimum or maximum ages for some diagnostic contact period paintings superimposed over or under the beeswax figures. The site was intensively documented between 2008-2011 by a Griffith University led team of archaeologists and local Aboriginal people as part of Picturing Change, an Australian-wide investigation into contact period rock art.

Type: painting, beeswax rock art

Additional Items

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Yellow goannas - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Two paired solid yellow goannas are over red paintings but under rows of beeswax pellets. Details Title: Yellow goannas Creator: Unknown Date Created: 1860/1940 More Info: Archaeology journal, Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit Finding: Djulirri, Western Arnhem Land Culture: The Djulirri rock art site is located in the Wellington Range of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia.

# data[].attributes.body
Regina Ramos

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The early growth of Neolithic farming communities in Anatolia is indicated by elaborate traditions of pottery going back to the 6th millennium B.C.E. This example of handmade pottery, painted in red over a cream-colored slip, is one of many examples of painted pottery from the Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic site of Hacilar in southwestern Anatolia. Both the shape and the decoration of such vessels vary considerably.

The DMA example is an ovoid cylindrical vessel with two bands of painted chevron designs formed by reserved bands. The lip is marked by red and white bands, and there is a triangular chevron decoration inside the rim. The two chevron bands on the outside of the vessel are separated by a median band of three lines, which is level with the attached lugs on the sides. Such lugs may have been used to suspend the pot. The subtle use of single reserved lines to accent half of each chevron triangle creates a lively rhythm. This piece exemplifies the rapid growth of arts and crafts in farming villages that could amass a surplus food supply and so could support craftspeople such as potters.

**Excerpt from**

Anne R. Bromberg and Karl Kilinski II, _Gods, Men, and Heroes: Ancient Art at the Dallas Museum of Art_. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996. 29.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Vessel with Suspension Lugs - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The early growth of Neolithic farming communities in Anatolia is indicated by elaborate traditions of pottery going back to the 6th millennium B.C.E. This example of handmade pottery, painted in red over a cream-colored slip, is one of many examples of painted pottery from the Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic site of Hacilar in southwestern Anatolia.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Shango priests store the deity's thunderbolts (Neolithic celts or axe heads), kola nuts, food offerings, oshe Shango, and other ritual paraphernalia in a calabash bowl that is placed on an upturned mortar. In the Igbomina and Ekiti areas, Shango shrines are adorned with large sculpted arugba, or bowl carriers, as exemplified by the Dallas arugba Shango that depicts a seated female holding a lidded bowl above her head (fig. 33).

The central figure in a caryatid vessel is always a female, depicted either kneeling or seated on a mortar, holding a large lidded bowl above her head with both hands. She represents a devotee who has petitioned Shango for the blessing of a child. That her prayer was answered is indicated by the figure's swollen abdomen and/or by one of the smaller figures carved at either side. The smaller figures on this sculpture are holding ritual objects. The one on her left carries an oshe Shango in one hand and a stockfish in the other, while the figure on her right clasps a bowl. The faces carved in relief on the lid and bowl held by the central figure refer to a ritual practice in which a devotee touches his or her forehead with a kola nut and then repeats this action on the sculpted faces. The face carved on the lid looks toward the viewer; the face on the bowl is placed upside down to look toward the sky world. The faces are darkened with blue paint, traditionally natural indigo pigment, in reference to the ori inu, or the seat of one's destiny in one's "inner head." The bowl itself is thought to be a metaphor for the womb, which Shango can fill with a new life if the devotee is faithful to him.(18)

This arugba Shango was carved by Akobi Ogun Fakeye (c. 1870-1946), whose name means "the first born of Ogun," the Yoruba god of iron and the patron saint of woodcarvers. Akobi Ogun was the son of a sculptor but chose not to carve. According to his son Lamidi Olonade Fakeye (b. 1925), an internationally known sculptor whose work is installed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Akobi Ogun contracted smallpox when he was about twenty years old. Ifa divination revealed that Akobi Ogun's destiny was to follow the "family work of woodcarving" and because he had denied his destiny, he was punished with smallpox. After making sacrificial food offerings to Ogun, Akobi Ogun entered into an apprenticeship with a master sculptor named Tayewo who lived in the town Ila Orangun. Three years later, Akobi Ogun established his own atelier.(19) Akobi Ogun Fakeye carved at least two other arugba Shango, one of which is in a German private collection (20) and the other in a British private collection.(21)

The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art, cat. 30, pp. 112-113.

18. Drewal, Henry John, and John Pemberton III, with Rowland Abiodun. Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. Edited by Allen Wardwell. New York: Center for African Art, in association with Harry N. Abrams, 1989. pp. 155, fig. 169, and pp. 162-163, fig. 170.
Compare for an arugba Shango carved by Arowgun (areogun) of Osi-Ilorin.

19. Haight, Bruce, and Lamidi Olonade Fakeye. Lamidi Olonade Fakeye: African Sculptor of the Twentieth Century. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Western Michigan University, 1987. p. 38.

20. Abiodun, Rowland, Henry John Drewal, and John Pemberton III. Yoruba: Art and Aesthetics. Edited by Lorenz Homberger. Zurich: Rietberg Museum; New York: Center for African Art, 1991. p. 27, fig. 34.

21. Jones, David. Poets with Adzes: An Introduction to Yoruba Religious Art. Ipswich, England: Museums and Galleries, 1988. p. 25, cat. no. 414.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Caryatid vessel (arugba Shango) - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Shango priests store the deity's thunderbolts (Neolithic celts or axe heads), kola nuts, food offerings, oshe Shango, and other ritual paraphernalia in a calabash bowl that is placed on an upturned mortar.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
La Peña - Javier Pérez González - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.body
Montse Pruvost

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Double Kandila of the Grotta-Pelos Group - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Cycladic potters in the Pelos period, about 3000 to 2800 B.C., produced characteristic kandiles with globular bodies, and tall necks and feet. Cycladic pot...

# data[].attributes.body
Montse Pruvost

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
SONIA FALCONE | PLURINATIONAL STATE OF BOLIVIA
1965, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Plurinational State of Bolivia. Lives and works in Mexico
JOSÉ LAURA YAPITA
1968, La Paz, Plurinational State of Bolivia. Lives and works in La Paz

Without title, 2014, sound installation
Courtesy: the artists

Ethnic group: Originating from Plurinational State of Bolivia
Language: Aymara
Speaker: José Jesús Laura Yapita
Location: Peru, Plurinational State of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina
Population: 2.100.000
Level of Extinction: Moderate

The ancestors always sowed wisely, keeping their produce in large storage spaces. In order to have a good harvest, whether in the hills or on the plains, they took a thorough reading of the weather and of nature. Doing so, did not require big machines or money; all that was necessary was to give importance to or carry out a good reading of the weather and mother earth. Today, industrialized countries use big machines, fertilizers with chemicals for sowing, with no concern for the damage they cause to the eco-system. In this way they also succeed in building big factories with much economic capital. With the technology at their disposal they contaminate the environment, consequently destroying the Pachamama (mother earth). In order to do this, they receive economic assistance from their governments. These same products, technologically produced are sold to their own countries. Economic aid does not always reach the small producer in order to enhance production. In our lands, the way things are going, there is no longer, nor will there be in the future a good harvest. At this point it would be wise to reflect on other alternatives of production, so that our communities and ayllus might continue to produce.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Pintura Rupestre Paintings Alto de Mairana, Plurinational State of Bolivia - Sonia Falcone and José Laura Yapita - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
SONIA FALCONE | PLURINATIONAL STATE OF BOLIVIA1965, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Plurinational State of Bolivia. Lives and works in Mexico JOSÉ LAURA YAPITA 1968, La Paz, Plurinational State of Bolivia.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The prehistoric art tracings of the MNCN. Conservation of a unique legacy. - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Archive of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid keeps a collection of almost 2,200 iconographic documents produced by the Commission of Pa...

# data[].attributes.body
Los buriles son herramientas de corte muy eficaces. Se fabrican a partir de una lámina de silex, mediante golpes laterales para obtener un bisel en el vértice con el que incidir para grabar y cortar. Durante el Paleolítico superior los buriles se asocian a la extracción de varillas de las astas de ciervo con las que hacer puntas de azagayas o arpones y, al grabado de huesos y del arte rupestre.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The burins are very effective cutting tools. These are made from a flint blade, by means of lateral hits to obtain a bevel edge with which incise to engrav...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Decorated scapula - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Deer scapula decorated with the figure of a doe with its head turned back and its ears pricked up, looking alert. Incised striated lines along the head and...

# data[].attributes.body
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/propulsor-con-decoración-de-bisonte/MgErpkHRJunJbw

De la colección de

Museo de la Evolución Humana (MEH)

Nombre popular: Propulsor.
Nombre técnico: Reproducción de bisonte sobre asta de reno, posible fragmento de un propulsor.
Cronología: 13.000 b.p. Paleoítico superior. Magdaleniense.
Yacimiento: Montastruc, Tarn-et-Garonne. Francia.
Descripción: Muestra de arte mueble en asta de reno. Representación realista de un bisonte en un espacio mínimo, la pieza mide 10 cm. El artista demuestra no sólo el conocimiento detallado de la anatomía del bisonte sino también el dominio de la técnica escultórica, ya que consigue dotar a la pieza de volumen.

# data[].attributes.body
Regina Ramos

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Paleolithic art; an ivory head of a woman.

# data[].attributes.body
Montse Pruvost

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Carved seal - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Seal carved into the form of a crouching ape. The seal has a roughly oval base engraved with cross-hatching.

# data[].attributes.body
Regina Ramos

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Spear-thrower with bison decoration - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Common name: Spear-thrower. Technical name: Reproduction of a bison on a reindeer antler, possible fragment of a spear-thrower. Chronology: 13,000 BP. Uppe...

# data[].attributes.body
Figura femenina, en hueso, marfil o piedra, de pequeño tamaño, relacionadas con el culto a la fecundidas; son conocidas como "Venus"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Anthropomorphic Figurine (Venus) - Culture Valdivia - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.body
Museo Arqueológico de Alicante. Autor: Desconocido. Época: 4000 a.c Período: Neolítico. Fabricado en piedra. Formato pequeño.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Painted pottery - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Piece of oxidised pottery from a medium or large sized container, decorated with red paint, probably ochre. The decoration consists of a series of horizont...

# data[].attributes.body
La cueva de Lascaux es un sistema de cuevas en Dordoña en donde se han descubierto significativas muestras del arte rupestre y paleolítico.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Lascaux is the setting of a complex of caves near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne in southwestern France.

# data[].attributes.body
The Venus of Willendorf in the box where it had found a home for the first 80 years after its discovery.
This limestone figurine is 29 500 years old and a masterpiece of Paleolithic sculpture. It was discovered on August 7th, 1908, during excavation work carried out in Willendorf (World Heritage Region Wachau, Lower Austria) by the Imperial Natural History Museum Vienna and counts among the most famous archeological finds in the world.
The shortened arms and legs, the semi-seated position and the faceless head are part of the message it communicated.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Venus of Willendorf in the box where it had found a home for the first 80 years after its discovery.
This limestone figurine is 29 500 years old and a masterpiece of Paleolithic sculpture. It was discovered on August 7th, 1908, during excavation work carried out in Willendorf (World Heritage Region Wachau, Lower Austria) by the Imperial Natural History Museum Vienna and counts among the most famous archeological finds in the world.
The shortened arms and legs, the semi-seated position and the faceless head are part of the message it communicated.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Venus in her casket - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Venus of Willendorf in the box where it had found a home for the first 80 years after its discovery.This limestone figurine is 29 500 years old and a masterpiece of Paleolithic sculpture.

# data[].attributes.body
DESCRIPCIÓN Arte Neolítico.Escultura de piedra, bulto redondo ANÁLISIS Obra religiosa de representación antropomorfa. Proporciones exageradas. INTERPRETACIÓN Representación iconográfico. Fines religiosos para la deidad madre, lo cual demuestra el animismo de la época.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Goddess figurine - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This ancient goddess, born in the earliest villages, is sometimes called "the great mother." She was the symbolic representation of life, regeneration, and...

# data[].attributes.body
Fragmentary Neolithic Standing Female Figurine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fragmentary Neolithic Standing Female Figurine - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This ball-shaped figure has an elongated neck that proved too thin and weak to resist breaking. Neolithic artists typically crafted female figures with par...