Small Bull’s Head Finial

Place of OriginTurkey, acquired in Diyarbakir

Dateabout 2400 - 2000 BCE

DimensionsBull's head: H 3.2 cm; W (base) 4.2 cm; W (across horns) 4.8 cm; Thickness 2.4 cm

MediumBronze, solid cast

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineGift of Dr. Armand H. Delsemme and Mrs. Delphine Delsemme

Object number

2007.77

Not on View

Collections

Decorative Arts

Published ReferencesCf. A Peaceable Kingdom: The Leo Mildenberg Collection of Ancient Animals, Christie's, London, 26-27 October 2004, 286, lot 384 (=VI no. 8; BP8962=US$ 16,400); Cf. Jane Biers (ed.),A Peaceable Kingdom: Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Collection, part VI, Mainz, Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2004, no. VI, 8 (Bull Standard, bronze, solid cast, Anatolian, ca. 2300 B.C., H 16.2 cm, L 13 cm, M 844) Cf. Joan Aruz (ed.), Art of the First Cities, exhibition catalogue, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003,pp. 284-285. George Ortiz, In Pursuit of the Absolute: Art of the Ancient World: The George Ortiz Collection, Bern, 1996, no. 28. Cf.Alan S. Walker (ed.), Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Collection, part III, Mainz, Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1991, no. III,270 (Standing Bull, bronze, Southeast Anatolia or North Syria, late 3rd or early 2nd millennium B.C., H 8.8 cm; W 6.4 cm; L 16 cm) Cf. Oscar White Muscarella, Bronze and Iron: Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988) pp. 394-411, cat. nos. 527-565, a collection of 41 bronzes purchased from a New York dealer in 1955 with parallels to excavated material from the middle to late Early Bronze Age (pre-Hittite) cemeteries at Alaca Hüyük, Horoztepe, and Mahmatlar in the Corum-Amasya-Tokaar region of Turkey. Of the 41 objects, only four (two sistra with rows of bull's horns and animals on the frame, MMA 55.137.1 and .2; the double bull standard finial, MMA 55.137.5, and the set of bull's horns, MMA 55.137.6) are sculptural parallels for the Delsemme bull's head. Cf. Uri Avida, Animals in Ancient Art: From the Leo Mildenberg Collection, exhibition catalogue, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Autumn 1986-Summer 1987, no. 27 (Bronze bull with electrum inlay, possibly the top of a devotional standard (M.I 7), Hattian, late 3rd millennium B.C.E., H 18.5 cm) Cf. Arielle P. Kozloff (ed.), Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Collection, exhibition catalogue, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981, p. 22, no. 7 (illus. also in color on case cover; Bronze Bull from a Devotional Standard, bronze, solid cast, inlaid with electrum, Hattian, last quarter of 3rd millennium B.C., L 14.5 cm; W of horns 12 cm). Cf. also the Hattian or Proto-Hittite gold bull jewel no. 8 and the electrum standing bull pendant no. 9. Cf. Oscar White Muscarella (ed.), Ancient Art: The Norbert Schimmel Collection (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1974), cat. 122 (an unexcavated group of two bulls as the finial of a separately made bronze standard, H of bulls 3.5 cm). Cf. Oscar White Muscarella, "Anatolia," The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 26, no. 5, January 1968, pp. 194-199, nos. 2, 3, and 4 Cf. Ekrem Akurgal and Max Hirmer, The Art of the Hittites, New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1962, pp. 15-29, 298-299, pls. 1-6, 10 (all standards in Museum of Archaeology, Ankara)..Label TextDuring the Early Bronze Age, several cultures in central Anatolia (modern Turkey) made sophisticated metal objects that have been found buried in the graves of important men and women. This bull’s head was originally attached to a ceremonial standard, shrine, vessel, or musical instrument. Small Hattian sculptures of bulls and deer all have characteristic long, narrow muzzles. The bull was the attribute of the weather god of the later Hittites, who is often shown standing on a bull's back. This earlier bull’s head probably held similar significance for the Hatti.