wall panel;
relief
- Museum number
- 124773
- Description
-
Gypsum wall panel in relief: the reeds and water on the left are original, from a scene that showed one of Sennacherib's campaigns in the marshes of Babylonia (southern Iraq). Running vertically down the panel, and drifting right towards the base, is a line of chiselling which deleted whatever was once carved on the right-hand side. What we see there now was carved over half a century later, by Ashurbanipal or one of his sons, perhaps Sinsharrishkun who also campaigned in Babylonia. The distinction between the two periods is clearest at the top, with different treatment of the water and fishes. On the right an Assyrian soldier, who carries a large shield wholly covering his body, and wears a corselet, is pursuing a member of the Babylonian cavalry whose horse rears as it reaches the reeds, integrating the original landscape into the later scene. The horse is in a natural position which is not represented elsewhere.
The plain left-hand edge of the panel would not have been carved, but masked by the end wall or colossal figure against which it once abutted. The bottom of the panel is also plain, and the original floor would have been roughly level with the line of black bitumen along its face.
- Production date
-
700BC-695BC
-
640BC-620BC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 144 centimetres
-
Thickness: 12 centimetres (extant)
-
Width: 132 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
It seems possible that this slab was part of a continuous scene representing a battle in the marshes resembling that to be seen in room XXVIII of the palace, wall panel 1851,0902.22a-e (BM. 124774), fought during a different campaign.
-
This panel is a striking example of the practical, matter-of-fact way in which the Assyrians solved problems.Sculptured panels from the palaces of Ashurnasirpal, Tiglath-pileser and Sargon were all reused by later kings, but on this occasion a panel has been left in position on its wall but scraped down, and the original carving has been partly replaced with an updated version of a similar subject.
The whole appears as a satisfactory unit, with a dramatic effect that has been compared with Chinese art. In fact the battle represents the left-hand end of what must have been a much longer composition, with two registers of fighting separated by a central river in much the same way as narrative scenes had been separated, in panels of the ninth and eighth centuries, by horizontal bands of inscription.
Bibliography:
J. E. Reade, Two slabs from Sennacharib’s palace, ‘Iraq’ 29 (1967), 42-45, pl. XII.
- Bibliographic references
-
Barnett, Bleibtreu & Turner 1998a / Sculptures from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh (184b)
-
Curtis & Reade 1994a / Tesoros de asiria en el Museo Britanico: Arte e Imperio (17)
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Curtis & Reade 1995a / Art and empire: treasures from Assyria in the British Museum (17)
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Smith 1938d / Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum from Shalmaneser III to Sennacherib (p. 16, pl. XXXVII)
-
Birch 1883 / Guide to the Kouyunjik Gallery (pp. 49-50, no. 3)
-
Paterson A 1915a / Assyrian sculptures, palace of Sinacherib [sic] (pls. 96-7)
-
Hall H R 1928a / Babylonian and Assyrian Sculpture in the British Museum (pl. XXXIII:2)
-
Gadd 1936b / The Stones of Assyria: the surviving remains of Assyrian sculpture, their recovery, and their original positions (pp. 163-4)
-
Barnett & Lorenzini 1975 / Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum (pl. 73) (detail)
-
Nagel 1967 / Die neuassyrischen Reliefstile unter Sanherib und Assurbanaplu (pp. 16-17, pl. 10)
-
Reade 1967 / Two Slabs from Sennacherib's Palace (pp. 42-45, pl. XII) (suggests location in Room XVIII)
-
Lorenzini, de Maigret & Fozzati 1980 / Gli Assiri - La scultura dal regno di Ashurnasirpal II. al regno di Assurbanipal (p. 82) (detail)
-
Reade 1983b / Assyrian Sculpture (p. 41, fig. 58)
-
Porada 1989 / Problems of Late Assyrian reliefs (pl. 42)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2018-2019, 8 Nov - 24 Feb, London, BM, I am Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria
2008-2009 21 Sept-4 Jan, Boston, MFA, 'Art and Empire'
2007 2 Apr-30 Sept, Alicante, MARQ Museum, 'Art and Empire'
2006 1 Jul-7 Oct, Shanghai Museum, 'Art and Empire'
- Acquisition date
- 1851
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 124773
- Registration number
- 1851,0902.29
