Details

LOT 1459

Western Asiatic Terracotta Storage Jar with Procession of Ibexes

CIRCA 1ST MILLENNIUM B.C.

6 1/8 in. (768 grams, 15.7 cm high).

Globular with flared rim, horizontal painted bands to the shoulder and equator, wavy line beneath and frieze of ibexes above. [No Reserve]

Provenance

From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000.
From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.
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.

Literature

Cf. Dibon-Smith, R., The Ibex as an iconographic Symbol in the ancient Near East, 2015, fig.18, for similar image of ibexes on the Susian pottery.

Footnotes

The images of the ibex attested as the most ancient figures date back to the discovery of the beakers of Susa ca. 4000 B.C. There are several such beakers in the museums, all coming from the excavations of the prehistoric levels of Susa (later on becoming the Elamite Shushan, modern Shush, Iran). The ibex is portrayed in a non-naturalistic way, with the use of simple shapes, such as triangles. The horns of the goat arch back over itself, forming a circle over its body. The beakers of Susa have the following elements in common: the large ibex image, with exaggerated horns, and figures of wavy lines symbolising water and rain.