Lot 6
6
AN ASSYRIAN GYPSUM RELIEF FRAGMENT
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF DR. VALLO BENJAMIN
AN ASSYRIAN GYPSUM RELIEF FRAGMENT

REIGN OF SENNACHERIB, CIRCA 705-681 B.C.

Details
AN ASSYRIAN GYPSUM RELIEF FRAGMENT
REIGN OF SENNACHERIB, CIRCA 705-681 B.C.
4 3/4 in. (12 cm.) high
Provenance
From the Southwest Palace, Nineveh.
Possibly with Charles Dikran Kelekian (1900-1982), New York, 1950 (Inv. no. 8407, described as "Fragment of an Assyrian relief, 'head'").
Private Collection, Europe.
The Property of a Lady; Antiquities, Sotheby's, London, 10 July 1972, lot 85.
E. Smith, acquired from the above (according to auctioneer's book; almost certainly Edward Smith, New York).
with Charles Dikran Kelekian (1900-1982), New York (photograph preserved in the Kelekian Archives at The Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Private Foundation, California, acquired from the above, 1973.
Property of a California Private Foundation; Antiquities, Sotheby's, New York, 12 June 1993, lot 222.
Dr. Vallo Benjamin (1934-2021), New York, acquired from the above; thence by descent to the current owner.
Literature
R.D. Barnett, E. Bleibtreu and G. Turner, Sculptures from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh, London, 1998, vol. I, p. 141, no. 735; vol. II, pl. 513.

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Lot Essay

This relief preserves a warrior with a long beard and hair, armed in a conical helmet with an ear flap, body armor and a mace. Similarly armed Assyrian bodyguards stand before Sennacherib on a relief from the Southwest Palace at Nineveh, now in the British Museum, on which the king watches the battle of Lachish. His soldiers are bringing prisoners before him to be executed (see fig. 112 in J.M. Russel, Sennacherib's Palace Without Rival at Nineveh).

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