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Assyrian sculpture and Balawat Gates (Room 6)

11th – 8th centuries BC

Colossal statue of a winged lion from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II (Room B) -865/-860

From the collection of British Museum

This is one of a pair of guardian figures that flanked one of the entrances into the throne room of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC). Stone mythological guardians, sculpted in relief or in the round, were often placed at gateways to ancient Mesopotamian palaces, to protect them from demonic forces. They were known to the Assyrians as lamassu. This winged lion has five legs so that when viewed from the front it is standing firm, and when viewed from the side it appears to be striding forward against any evil. It wears ropes like other protective spirits. Between the legs is inscribed the 'Standard Inscription' of Ashurnasirpal which is repeated over many of his reliefs. It records the king's titles, ancestry and achievements.

This colossal figure was excavated by Austen Henry Layard who worked in Assyria between 1845 and 1851. He suggested that these composite creatures embodied the strength of the lion, the swiftness of birds indicated by the wings, and the intelligence of the human head. The helmet with horns indicates the creature's divinity.

Large stone sculptures and reliefs were a striking feature of the palaces and temples of ancient Assyria (modern northern Iraq). An entrance to the royal palace of King Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC) at Nimrud was flanked by two colossal winged human-headed lions. A gigantic standing lion stood at the entrance to the nearby Temple of Ishtar, the goddess of war.

These sculptures are displayed in Rooms 6a and 6b alongside fragments and replicas of the huge bronze gates of Shalmaneser III (858-824 BC) from Balawat.

A Black Obelisk also on display shows the same king receiving tribute from Israel and is displayed with obelisks and stelae (vertical inscribed stone slabs) from four generations of Assyrian kings.

The Gayer-Anderson Cat is a bronze Ancient Egyptian statue of a cat, which dates from the Late Period (around 664–332 BC).

Style and detail

The sculpture is known as the Gayer-Anderson cat after Major Robert Grenville Gayer-Anderson who, together with Mary Stout Shaw, donated it to the British Museum. The statue is a representation of the cat-goddess Bastet. The cat wears jewellery and a protective wadjet amulet. The earrings and nose ring on the statue may not have always belonged to the cat. A scarab appears on the head and a winged scarab is shown on the chest. The statue is 42 cm high and 13 cm wide. A copy of the statue is kept in the Gayer-Anderson Museum, located in Cairo.

Construction

Detail of the head

The statue is not as well preserved as it appears. X-rays taken of the sculpture reveal that there are cracks that extend almost completely around the centre of the cat's body and only an internal system of strengthening prevents the cat's head from falling off. The repairs to the cat were carried out by Major Gayer-Anderson who was a keen restorer of antiquities in the 1930s. When he bought it, the surface of the cat was "covered with a heavy coating of crystalline verdigris and crisp flakes of red patina" which he carefully removed by chipping away at it.

The cat was manufactured by the lost wax method where a wax model is covered with clay, or clay and water, until there is sufficient thickness. The clay can then be fired in a kiln and the wax flows out. The now hollow mould can be refilled with bronze. In this case the metal was 85% copper, 13% tin, 2% arsenic with a 0.2% trace of lead. The remains of the pins that held the wax core can still be seen using x-rays. The original metalworkers would have been able to create a range of colours on a bronze casting and the stripes on the tail are due to metal of a differing composition. It is also considered likely that the eyes contained stone or glass decorations.

Interesting article about Gayer-Anderson:

http://www.independent.ie/life/the-ir...

Head and upper body of pink/grey granite monumental statue of Ramses II (one of a pair placed before the door of the Ramesseum) wearing nemes head-cloth and circlet of uraei (about half now lost), the sculptor has exploited the bichrome nature of the stone to emphasise the division between body and face; the dorsal pillar is inscribed with vertical registers of hieroglyphs - giving the name and titles of the king and part of a dedication to Amun-Ra; in 1817 it was noted that there were traces of colour upon the statue and it may have, therefore, been painted red in antiquity.

Ramesses II (variously transliterated as "Rameses" (/ˈræməsiːz/) or "Ramses" (/ˈræmsiːz/ or /ˈræmziːz/); born c. 1303 BC; died July or August 1213 BC; reigned 1279–1213 BC), also known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire. His successors and later Egyptians called him the "Great Ancestor". Ramesses II led several military expeditions into the Levant, reasserting Egyptian control over Canaan. He also led expeditions to the south, into Nubia, commemorated in inscriptions at Beit el-Wali and Gerf Hussein.

At age fourteen, Ramesses was appointed Prince Regent by his father Seti I. He is believed to have taken the throne in his late teens and is known to have ruled Egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC. Estimates of his age at death vary; 90 or 91 is considered most likely.Ramesses II celebrated an unprecedented 14 sed festivals (the first held after thirty years of a pharaoh's reign, and then every three years) during his reign—more than any other pharaoh. On his death, he was buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings; his body was later moved to a royal cache where it was discovered in 1881, and is now on display in the Cairo Museum.

The early part of his reign was focused on building cities, temples and monuments. He established the city of Pi-Ramesses in the Nile Delta as his new capital and main base for his campaigns in Syria. He is also known as Ozymandias in the Greek sources, from a transliteration into Greek of a part of Ramesses' throne name, Usermaatre Setepenre, "The justice of Rê is powerful – chosen of Rê".