Sumerian Limestone Plaque with Lion

3RD MILLENNIUM B.C.

3 3/4 in. (246 grams, 96 mm).

Fragment from a plaque or large bowl with high-relief head and foreparts of a lion with broad piriform face and sunken eyes; rounded rim above.

Provenance

Ex Mr J.K. Maryland, USA.
Private collection.
Acquired in 1999.

Literature

Cf. Woolley, L., Medio Oriente (Near East), Milano, 1961, p.48, for near identical lions on the sacrificial vessel coming from Uruk with images of bulls and lions in relief.

Footnotes

From a technical point of view, the sculpture, in low relief, belonged to a ritual element with profile figures highlighted by an extremely delicate internal modelling, with space between the various decorative bands that admirably preserves the figure of the lion, giving it full value, according to an artistic principle also found in the seals of the Jemdet Nasr period (2800-2600 BC).

CONDITION

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LOT 0197