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Details
LOT 1520
Sumerian Stone Statue Fragment
3RD MILLENNIUM B.C.
3 3/8 in. (340 grams, 85 mm).
Carved in the round figure of a lion crouching on its haunches, with neck arched and forepaws resting on the spine (upper edge) of an animal placed perpendicular to the lion's head biting into its flesh; the D-shaped face with teardrop-shaped sockets for the eyes, button nose, small triangular ears; the prey with legs folded beneath the body, head turned along the lion's mane and left shoulder, with small protrusive horn and ear, oval socket for the eye; integral base with rounded lateral edges, fracture at each end.
Provenance
From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s.
Literature
See Strommenger, E., The Art of Mesopotamia, London, 1964, no.26, for examples of the theme of lions attacking their prey.
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