Deity Performing Ritual Purification

* Nearly 20,000 images of artworks the museum believes to be in the public domain are available to download on this site. Other images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. By using any of these images you agree to LACMA's Terms of Use.

Deity Performing Ritual Purification

Northern Iraq, Nimrud, 9th century B.C.
Sculpture
Gypseous alabaster
90 3/4 × 76 × 3 in. (230.51 × 193.04 × 7.62 cm) Weight: 2 Ton 50 lb. (1837.1 kg)
Purchased with funds provided by Anna Bing Arnold (66.4.5)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

This splendid series of five Assyrian bas-reliefs (see also 66.4.1, .2, .3, .4) from the ninth-century once decorated the inner walls of the northwest palace of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883-859 BC).

...

This splendid series of five Assyrian bas-reliefs (see also 66.4.1, .2, .3, .4) from the ninth-century once decorated the inner walls of the northwest palace of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883-859 BC). The site of ancient Calah (now called Nimrud), located on the Tigris River in northern Iraq, was first excavated by British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard in 1845. Calah was an ancient capital of Assyria probably founded in the thirteenth century BC. The city was developed under the reign of Ashurnasirpal II, who erected his great northwest palace on earlier ruins. Built of mud brick on stone foundations, the palace was embellished on its lower levels with a series of decorated slabs (from the upper Tigris quarries) that depicted the monarch's skill as a hunter/warrior, as a servant of the gods, and as a mighty king. One of the five panels depicts the king with a learned man. In one hand, the king holds a libation bowl; in his other hand, he holds his bow, symbol of royal prowess. A long inscription in cuneiform on the reliefs has come to be known as Ashurnasirpal's "standard inscription" because it was repeated so frequently throughout the palace; it mentions the king's prayer and his deeds in founding the city of Calah.

The reliefs were discovered in 1855 by a Scottish geologist, William Kenneth Loftus, after the departure of Layard. They were offered to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and for more than a century they were displayed near the entrance of that institution. In 1966, thanks to the generosity of Anna Bing Arnold, the reliefs were purchased and presented to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

More...

Bibliography

  • Donahue, Kenneth.  X, a Decade of Collecting:  1965-1975.  Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1975.
  • Donahue, Kenneth. Los Angeles County Museum of Art Handbook. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1977.
  • Donahue, Kenneth.  X, a Decade of Collecting:  1965-1975.  Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1975.
  • Donahue, Kenneth. Los Angeles County Museum of Art Handbook. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1977.
  • Mousavi, Ali. Ancient Near Eastern art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2012.
More...