Ancient Near East Art on Display in New York
More than 250 extraordinary works of art from the ancient Near East are on display through Jan. 4, 2015 at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The exhibition is titled “Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age.”
This breathtaking display of monumental sculptures, wall reliefs, carved ivories, metalwork and jewelry traces the deep roots of interaction between the ancient Near East and the lands along the Mediterranean.
The exhibition is organized around three major themes: Assyria’s land-based expansion from northern Mesopotamia westward; Phoenician expansion by sea through the development of trade relations and the founding of colonies; and the adoption of Near Eastern imagery and artistic techniques in the western Mediterranean. The final gallery presents works that represent the shift of power to Babylon after the sacking of the Assyrian capital at Nineveh in 612 BCE. The gallery includes relevant passages in the Bible, the epics of Homer and other texts that relate to the historical people, places, customs and events represented in the exhibition.
The dominant power of the Near East during the 8th to 7th centuries BCE, the Assyrian Empire exerted an immense impact on the artistic traditions that developed in the region. Multiple scenes of the armies of King Ashurbanipal (r. 668-631 BCE) defeating the Elamites—long-standing enemies of the Assyrians—are displayed in a frieze from his palace at Nineveh. Ashurbanipal is also shown feasting while reclining on a couch that appears to have been covered in ornamental ivory panels, similar to the vast number of ivory furniture attachments that entered his palace storerooms as booty or tribute, or were produced by Assyrian artisans, outstanding examples of which are displayed nearby.
As Assyria expanded, the Phoenician city-states of the Levant were compelled to increase and strengthen their maritime trade networks to the west. The mercantile connections they established along the northern coast of Africa and the southern coast of Europe to the Strait of Gibraltar and beyond became conduits for raw materials, luxury goods, images and ideas.
The items displayed at The Met are on loan from major collections in Western Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East, North Africa and the U.S.
—Elaine Pasquini
