Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California Part 1.

Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California Part 1.
In the ninth through seventh centuries B.C.E., the kings of Assyria forged the greatest empire the region had known. Its armies conquered lands from Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean coast, and parts of Anatolia (Turkey) in the west to the mountains of Iran in the east. The Assyrian heartland itself lay astride the Tigris River in Mesopotamia, in what is today northern Iraq. Its original capital was the city of Ashur, known by this name since at least the mid-third millennium B.C.E. In the period of the Assyrian Empire, the capital moved successively to Kalhu (Nimrud), Dur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad), and finally—the grandest city of all—Nineveh.
At each of these sites the kings built palaces to glorify their reigns, adorning the walls with superbly carved reliefs in gypsum and limestone. The scenes, which were originally brightly painted, presented an idealized image of the ruler through vivid depictions of battles, rituals, mythological creatures, hunting, building works, and court life.
The reliefs in this exhibition come from the palaces of Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BCE) and Tiglath-pileser III (745– 727 BCE) at Kalhu, Sargon II (722–705 BCE) at Dur-Sharrukin, and the last great Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668–627 BCE) at Nineveh. Together these works, which include some of the masterpieces of Assyrian art, provide a representative overview of the primary subjects, styles, and artistic achievements of Assyrian sculptors. - Getty Villa











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