Lot 62
62
AN ASSYRIAN GYPSUM RELIEF FRAGMENT
AN ASSYRIAN GYPSUM RELIEF FRAGMENT
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PROPERTY FROM A FRENCH PRIVATE COLLECTION
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.
14 7⁄8 in. (37.7 cm.) high
Provenance
From the Southwest Palace, Nineveh, probably either Room XXXVIII or LX.
Lionel Désiré-Marie-René-François de Moustier (1817-1869), the French ambassador to Constantinople from 1861-1866; thence by continuous descent to Roland Marquis de Moustier (1909-2001), Château de Bournel, Cubry, France.
Private Collection, France, acquired from the above, circa 1948; thence by descent to the current owner.
Literature
Drawn in-situ by C. D. Hodder (1832-1926) prior to 1860 (preserved in the British Museum, inv. no. 2007,6024.512; his album Or.Dr.VI,9).
R.D. Barnett, E. Bleibtreu and G. Turner, Sculptures from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh, London, 1998, vol. I, p. 108, no. 455; vol. II, pl. 365.
J.M. Russell, “Reviewed Work(s): Sculptures from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh by Richard D. Barnett, Erika Bleibtreu and Geoffrey Turner,“ American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 104, no. 3, July 2000, p. 612.
G. Turner (J.M. Russell, ed.), The British Museum's Excavations at Nineveh, 1846-1855, Leiden, 2021, pp. 384-385, fig. 4.15.

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Lot Essay

The present relief derives from Sennacherib’s (r. 704-681 B.C.) Southwest Palace, which he named “The Palace Without Rival.” It contained more than seventy rooms, and many of the walls of the public areas were decorated in relief with narratives illustrating "achievements of the various kings in war, in the hunt and in public works," serving as a visual reminder of the king's power (see J.E. Curtis and J.E. Reade, eds., Art and Empire: Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum, p. 41). This relief derives from a larger slab showing a river full of fish with Assyrian spearmen ascending a mountain above. Each warrior carries a large, convex shield on his back, as shown here. Typical of Assyrian artistic convention are the scales, which represent the mountainous hillside. A fragment likely from the same scene showing a cavalryman leading his horse through a river is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see pl. 366 in R.D. Barnett, et. al., op. cit.).

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