Northwest Palace Relief with Winged Deity (Apkallu)
Northwest Palace Relief with Winged Deity (Apkallu)
Place of OriginNimrud (Kalhu), Assyria (near present-day Mosul, Iraq)
Dateabout 880 BCE
Dimensions35 3/8 × 52 × 1 1/2 in. (89.9 × 132.1 × 3.8 cm)
Mediumalabaster with traces of pigment
ClassificationSculpture
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1966.118
On View
Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic
DescriptionAlabaster (gypsum) with traces of red, blue, white, and black pigment.
Label TextThis carved relief, originally enhanced with red, blue, white, and black paint, comes from Room S of the Northwest Palace in Nimrud, built for Ashurnasirpal II, a Neo-Assyrian king who ruled from 883 to 859 BCE. He is known for expanding the Assyrian Empire through military campaigns into the Levant and Babylonia, as well as for his brutal treatment of conquered peoples, which secured his authority through fear. Lines of gods, some with eagle heads, decorated this room, believed to have been used for ritual bathing. The elaborate jewelry and hair of the deity reflect court fashions; the horned helmet indicates divinity. The god raises a spathe (the leaf-like sheath covering date palm flowers) to fertilize a palm tree, a symbol of fertility and abundance. The Northwest Palace was excavated by Austen Henry Layard beginning in 1845. This relief was acquired by William Frederick Williams (1818–1871), an American Presbyterian missionary and collector based in nearby Mosul. Active near Nimrud during the height of Assyrian excavations, he acquired and donated artifacts to several Western collections.Published ReferencesBudge, Ernest A.T. Wallis, Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum, London, 1914, cf. similar reliefs from same excavations.
Vaughn, M., "Assyrian Sculptures in America," International Studio, Feb. 1927, p. 55, references to T. Williams collection.
Dunbar, Elizabeth, Talcott Williams, Gentleman of the Fourth Estate, New York, 1936, pp. 52, 300, 393.
Stearne, J.B. and Donald P. Hansen, The Assyrian Reliefs at Dartmouth, Hanover, 1953, p. 3, 5 cf. fig. 1, fig. 5.
"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums," Art Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 2, Summer 1968, p. 205, repr. p. 209.
The Toledo Museum of Art, "Treasures for Toledo," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, new series, vol. 12, no. 4, Winter 1969, repr.
"La Chronique des Arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 75, no. 1214, March 1970, p. 3.
Peter Marks Gallery, Twenty-fifth anniversary/Twenty five selected works, 1985, New York, repr.
Ducan, Sally Anne, Otto Wittmann: Museum Man for All Seasons, Toledo, 2001, p. 16.
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 94, repr. (col.).
Comparative ReferencesSee also New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Great King, King of Assyria, New York, 1945.See also Important Classical, Egyptian, and Western Asiatic Antiquities, New York, Sotheby sale, December 14, 1994, lot. 153, repr.
about 200
Roman period, probably about 200 CE
mid-5th century BCE
about 650 BCE, Dynasty 25 (Kushite) or Dynasty 26 (Saite)
Early Dynastic Period II-III, about 2600 BCE
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