A MESOPOTAMIAN INLAID MARBLE CALF

LATE URUK-JEMDET NASR PERIOD, CIRCA 3300-2900 B.C.

Details

A MESOPOTAMIAN INLAID MARBLE CALF
LATE URUK-JEMDET NASR PERIOD, CIRCA 3300-2900 B.C.
Reclining with its legs folded under, the tail curled behind its right hind leg, the tapering head held square, with a downturned mouth, budding horns and triangular ears, the almond-shaped eyes inlaid in white stone, the lids in lapis lazuli, the pupils in dark material, heavy folds for the brows above, the body ornamented throughout with trilobate lapis lazuli inlays, the underside with a rectangular recess
4 1/8 in. (10.5 cm.) long

Provenance

with Dr. Elie Borowski.
Ludwig Herinek, Vienna, 1965.

Lot Essay

Many finely-sculpted figures of animals were found together in the Eanna temple precinct at Uruk Level III. Martin informs (p. 16 in Aruz, ed., Art of the First Cities, The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus) that "the figures were apparently votive offerings to the goddess Inanna to ensure her continuing goodwill." For a similar example now in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, see no. 2b, pp. 16-17, op. cit. For a discussion of the type see ch. 1 in Behm-Blancke, Das Tierbild in der Altmesopotamischen Rundplastik.

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