id: 122979 accession number: 1943.246 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1943.246 updated: 2019-07-30 08:00:07.997000 Saluting Protective Spirit, 883-859 BC. Neo-Assyrian, Iraq, Nimrud, Northwest Palace, reign of Ashurnasirpal II, 9th Century BC. Gypsum; overall: 229.9 x 137 cm (90 1/2 x 53 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1943.246 title: Saluting Protective Spirit title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 883-859 BC creation date earliest: 883 creation date latest: 859 current location: 102A Ancient Near East creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: Neo-Assyrian, Iraq, Nimrud, Northwest Palace, reign of Ashurnasirpal II, 9th Century BC technique: gypsum department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art collection: Near Eastern Art type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 229.9 x 137 cm (90 1/2 x 53 15/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Excavated by Layard at the palace of Ashur-nasirapal II in Calah (Nimrud) date: 1855 footnotes: citations: Amherst College, sold in even exchange for lot of objects to Joseph Brummer Gallery date: 1885-1942 footnotes: citations: (Joseph Brummer Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: 1942-1943 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1943- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The details of his garments are painstakingly rendered; he wears a long fringed cloak with tassels over a shorter kilt and an under tunic. digital description: Striding forward with muscular arms and legs, this winged deity offers a gesture of salutation along with symbols of agricultural bounty. Inscribed with an account of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II's military conquests and victories, this relief once stood alongside hundreds of similar ones that decorated the palace at Nimrud. wall description: Assyrian kings ruled the world's largest empire prior to the rise of Persia in the 6th century bc, consolidating lands from Iran to Egypt. In 879 bc the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II began building his new royal residence at Nimrud. Originally brightly painted, this is one of some 300 reliefs that decorated the palace. Masterfully executed with incised details and exaggerated musculature, this giant, fierce, protective spirit raises his right hand in a ritual salute. His left hand grasps a branch bearing rosettes, perhaps a stylized date palm. Across the center of the relief are inscribed lines of Akkadian cuneiform recounting military victories, conquests, plundered loot, and the reconstruction of the city. Destroyed in 612 bc, the palace lay buried for 24 centuries until rediscovered in 1845. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Layard, Austen Henry. The Monuments of Nineveh: From Drawings Made on the Spot. London: J. Murray, 1849. page number: p. 389, No. 9 Room S url: Malcolm, Vaughn. The International Studio (Feb. 1927) page number: url: Worcester Art Museum Bulletin (Oct. 1930) page number: url: Plough, Harold. "The Natural History of the Assyrian Bas-Reliefs." Amherst Graduate Quarterly (May 1934). page number: pp. 195-201 url: Hollis, Howard. "An Assyrian Relief of a Winged Deity." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 30, no. 7 (1943): 108-13. page number: url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141073 Art Quarterly VI (Summer 1943). page number: pp. 224-227 url: The Brummer Gallery Records. Cloisters (Museum), n.d. page number: N5334 url: https://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16028coll9/id/18427 The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 667 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n123 "Treasures from Cleveland," Apollo 78 (December 1963). page number: p. 441 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 10 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n34 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 10 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n32 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 3 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n23 Tortora, Phyllis G., and Keith Eubank. A Survey of Historic Costume. New York: Fairchild Publications, 1989. page number: p. 18, fig. 2.5 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. page number: Reproduced: p. 6 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1991/page/n21 Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterpieces from East and West. New York, NY: Rizzoli International, 1992. page number: p. 17 url: Tortora, Phyllis G., and Keith Eubank. A Survey of Historic Costume: A History of Western Dress. New York: Fairchild Publications, 1994. page number: p. 10, fig. 2.5 url: May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. page number: No. 2, pp. 6-7 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. page number: pp. 31-31 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.246/1943.246_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.246/1943.246_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.246/1943.246_full.tif