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Suppport of a Vessel with Two Lions Attacking a Bull
Suppport of a Vessel with Two Lions Attacking a Bull

Suppport of a Vessel with Two Lions Attacking a Bull

CultureMesopotamian
Dateca. 3000 B.C.E.
MediumLimestone
DimensionsOverall: 6 × 5 inches (15.24 × 12.7 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number35-319
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 103
Collections
Gallery Label
A struggle to kill and survive are portrayed by these two lions attacking a bull between them (his rump is still visible). This scene formed the support of a vessel that probably stood in a temple. The precise religious significance of the scene remains unclear.
Provenance

With Antoine P. Samhiry (active 1899-1937), Baghdad, Iraq, by 1935 [1];

 

Purchased from Samhiry, through Laurence Sickman, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935.

 

NOTES:

 

[1] Nelson-Atkins Archives, RG01/01 Director's Office Records, Paul Gardner, box 4, folder 41, 1935 Sickman purchases en route. Before Laurence Sickman assumed his role as Curator of Asian Art in June 1935, he traveled through South Asia and the Middle East on his way from China to the U.S. This is one of several objects he purchased in Baghdad from Samhiry during this trip.

Published References

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 11.

 

Edith Porada, “Problems of Style and Iconography in Early Sculptures of Mesopotamia and Iran,” in In Memoriam Otto Brendel: Essays in Archaeology and the Humanities, ed. Larissa Bonfante and Helga von Heintze (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1976), 1-4, plates 1-2.

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