Museum Paper essays

Museum Paper essays This object is a portion of a palace wall relief. The function of this relief wall in the palace is to serve as decoration and as a depiction of the king performing some of his duties. According to the museum, the palace relief was made out of limestone rock. The piece was part of a large wall, therefore the wall must have been constructed before the artist came in and carved the relief using chisels of bronze and copper and a hammer. The artist must have used chisels of different sizes and shapes to create the magnificent detail represented in this relief. The wall was left bare, not painted as there was no indication of paint or color. The head of the human figure was about double of a normal persons head, therefore the figure must have been very large. According to the museum, when the figure was part of the original wall it stood approximately 8 Â ½ ft tall. This piece belongs to the Assyrian culture in the Late Period of the Ancient Near East (1000 to 330 b.c.). When I first saw this piece I automatically thought of the lamassu that we looked at in class. The shape of the beard, wings on the persons back, horns on the headdress, and the hyperrealism depicted in each part gave me the indication of where and when this piece was created. Nothing in this piece seems unusual for this culture. The horns on the headdress of this man (Assunasirpal II, King of the Assyrians) resembles that of the Babylon culture. The Stela of Hammurabi of the previous Babylon Empire shows this same horned crown and shows how this past culture influenced the Assyrian art. This was an artistic convention used by artists in this area to depict a man or god of great importance. The museum information indicated this piece was from the Neo-Assyrian Era. According to our book, this period is referred to differently, so I would have to disagree with the museum s description on time period. The time period this piece belongs to is the Late...