Assyrian Reliefs And Ivories In The Metropolitan Museum Of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art houses monumental, majestic, and important works of art from the ancient world. In particular, a group of Assyrian sculptures from the Northwest Palace at Nimrud, which was constructed during the reign of Assurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.), is remarkable both for its artistic excellence and for its technical skill. Excavated at Nimrud in the mid-nineteenth century by Sir Austen Henry Layard, an English archaeologist, the majority of these impressive, larger-than-life-size reliefs and sculptures came to the Metropolitan Museum in 1932 as gifts of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., one of the Museum's most generous supporters. Other Assyrian pieces were gifts to the Museum in 1917 from J. Pierpont Morgan, another major figure in the Metropolitan's history. An earlier donor, Benjamin Brewster, began the Museum's collection of Assyrian reliefs with a gift in 1884. In 1968, prior to the beginning of construction on the Lila Acheson Wallace Galleries of Egyptian Art, most of the Ancient Near Eastern works were placed in storage. Now, as the first stage in the reinstallation of permanent galleries for the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, the Assyrian sculptures may again be enjoyed in a gallery setting that reflects their original placement in the Northwest Palace at Nimrud.

Bringing together the research of internationally renowned scholars, Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age contributes significantly to our understanding of the epoch-making artistic and cultural exchanges that took place across the Near East and Mediterranean in the early first millennium B.C. This was the world of Odysseus, in which seafaring Phoenician merchants charted new nautical trade routes and established prosperous trading posts and colonies on the shores of three continents; of kings Midas and Croesus, legendary for their wealth; and of the Hebrew Bible, whose stories are brought vividly to life by archaeological discoveries. Objects drawn from collections in the Middle East, Europe, North Africa, and the United States, reproduced here in sumptuous detail, reflect the cultural encounters of diverse populations interacting through trade, travel, and migration as well as war and displacement. Together, they tell a compelling story of the origins and development of Western artistic traditions that trace their roots to the ancient Near East and across the Mediterranean world. Among the masterpieces brought together in this volume are stone reliefs that adorned the majestic palaces of ancient Assyria; expertly crafted Phonecian and Syrian bronzes and worked ivories that were stored in the treasuries of Assyria and deposited in tombs and sanctuaries in regions far to the west; and lavish personal adornments and other luxury goods, some imported and others inspired by Near Eastern craftsmanship. Accompanying texts by leading scholars position each object in cultural and historical context, weaving a narrative of crisis and conquest, worship and warfare, and epic and empire that spans both continents and millennia. Writing another chapter in the story begun in Art of the First Cities (2003) and Beyond Babylon (2008), Assyria to Iberia offers a comprehensive overview of art, diplomacy, and cultural exchange in an age of imperial and mercantile expansion in the ancient Near East and across the Mediterranean in the first millennium B.C.—the dawn of the Classical age.

The strange story of the Assyrian Reliefs in the Metropolitan Museum and the Hidden Masterpiece at Canford School. This volume includes previously unpublished photographs, illustrations from rare nineteenth century sources, and passages from the diary of Lady Charlotte Guest (cousin of Austen Henry Layard).

A catalog, from two exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that describes and illustrates the British Museum's extraordinary collection of Assyrian carved reliefs from the palaces of the Assyrian kings at Nimrud and Nineveh in northern Mesopotamia, which date from the ninth to the seventh centuries B.C. Numerous small objects provide a broader picture of life in Assyria. Includes 224 illustrations, 200 in color. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

An insider's look at the iconography and history of Assyrian reliefs and the West's fascination with these ancient monuments

A Companion to Assyria is a collection of original essays on ancient Assyria written by key international scholars. These new scholarly contributions have substantially reshaped contemporary understanding of society and life in this ancient civilization. The only detailed up-to-date introduction providing a scholarly overview of ancient Assyria in English within the last fifty years Original essays written and edited by a team of respected Assyriology scholars from around the world An in-depth exploration of Assyrian society and life, including the latest thought on cities, art, religion, literature, economy, and technology, and political and military history

"Provides the cultural, archaeological, and historical contexts for a selection of thirty works of art in the Metropolitan Museum's collection"--Slipcase.