LOT 1248

Western Asiatic Bronze Bull Rider

1ST MILLENNIUM B.C.

2 in. (84 grams, 51 mm high).

Showing a man on a standing bull, grabbing the hair of a captive with his right hand.

Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s.
Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent.
Private collection, since the late 1990s.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Cf. Ornan, T., ‘The bull and its two masters: Moon and Storm deities in relation to the bull in ancient Near Eastern Art (the phenomenon of shared identical emblematic imagery in Levantine iconography)’ in Israel Exploration Journal, 51 (1), pp.1-26, figs.12-14, for divinities mounting a bull.

The statuette can represent the god storm Hazor, a storm deity with lunar traits. The association between a bull and storm deities is well known on Anatolian sealings from 20th-19th century B.C. The portrayal of a god standing on a bull in conjunction with lunar symbols derived from Old Babylonian cult, where the bull was connected with the Moon as a goddess, and continued in the Near East in association with the god Hazor, identified with El, head of the Canaanite pantheon.