Download
PDF
We Guarantee:
Authenticity
Friendly Service
Prompt Shipping
Highest Integrity
100% Satisfaction
Contact:
fragments@aol.com
Babylonian Relief Plaque with Figures Atop Temple
Circa 1900-1600 BC
Description: Terracotta votive front of a chariot model depicting two confronting figures standing atop a temple facade. The figures are shown in low relief in profile wearing long garments. The figure on the left appears to be the goddess Ishtar, the most important female deity of ancient Mesopotamia, with a star above her right shoulder. She wears a conical headdress and stands with her exposed left leg forward and raised, resting on the summarily modeled neck of a lion. Her right arm hangs at her side holding a weapon or staff. Her left arm is raised in a welcoming gesture nearly touching the right hand of the male figure held in the same gesture. The male figure (right) is bearded and wears a broad-brimmed cap. He stands with legs together and his left arm at his side, also possibly holding a weapon. The scene is within a raised border. Mould-made from buff clay and covered with a cream-slip, the plaque is unmodeled on the back and pierced twice at the top for reins and once at the bottom.
Height: 4.0 in. (10.5 cm)
Condition: Intact as shown with damage at top and bottom. Fine, slightly powdery surface.
Provenance: Formerly in a private Ohio collection. Also ex: private East Coast, USA collection.
Reference: See MOOREY no. 124 for a fragment from a nearly identical plaque in the Ashmolean Museum.
Background: Ishtar was associated with many archetypes though her primary aspects are as the mother goddess of compassion and the goddess of love, sex and war. As the goddess of love, Ishtar was the 'courtesan of the gods’. In later Babylonian religion, she became associated with the planet Venus, and thus equated to Aphrodite by the ancient Greeks.
Price: $ 750
Copyright ©2008 by Fragments of Time - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED