id: 122979
accession number: 1943.246
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1943.246
updated: 2022-04-05 13:46:43.846000
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: palace of Ashur-nasirapal II in Calah (Nimrud)
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:
inscription:
translation:
remark:
---
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
---
LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
---
PROVENANCE
Excavated by Austen Henry Layard at the palace of Ashur-nasirapal II in Calah (Nimrud)
date: 1847
footnotes:
citations:
Gift of Dr. Henry John Lobdell (Class of 1849), to Amherst College
date: 1847-1852/1856?
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
Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), no. P427317: Nimrud NW Palace Relief Slab S-06.
page number:
url: https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/archival_view.php?ObjectID=P427317
Englund, Klaudia."Room S", The Northwest Palace at Nimrud. Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI).
page number: S-6
url: https://cdli.ucla.edu/projects/nimrud/rooms/s.html
Layard, Austen Henry. The Monuments of Nineveh: From Drawings Made on the Spot. London: J. Murray, 1849.
page number: Plate 37 of vol. 1, Map: 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