The Graven Image: Representation in Babylonia and Assyria. By Zainab Bahrani. Archaeology, Culture, and Society. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. Pp. x + 242. $49.95 (original) (raw)
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This chapter investigates theoretical and practical relationships between ancient Mesopotamian images and texts. It starts with observations drawn from studies outside and inside the field, finding most prominently a problematic tendency to view images through linguistically motivated frameworks that are in part the legacy of biblical and Protestant notions of verbal and textual supremacy. Efforts to obviate the reduction of images to texts, however, are seen in some recent alternative approaches to the co-presence of image and text in ancient Mesopotamian material culture. Finally, it is suggested that ancient Mesopotamians related images and texts in dynamic ways that challenge modern assumptions about their separability and categorization, as exemplified in the Late Bronze Age statue of Idrimi from Alalakh and the Iron Age Esarhaddon treaty tablet at Tell Tayinat.
Constructing Reality in Ancient Mesopotamia: A Review Essay of "The Infinite Image"
Oxford in 2011. In a style that retains much of the vitality and looseness of the spoken word, the book elaborates on the view previously articulated elsewhere by the author, 1 that art in ancient Mesopotamia was about presence and reality rather than imitation and representation, i.e., that images were understood as active components of the physical world. In The Infinite Image, Bahrani now explores more specifically how images were used to influence the temporal dimension of reality, bridging the present with the past and the future.
The Materiality of Divine Agency, 2015
Focusing on the divine image in Mesopotamia, this essay explores the construction and implications of the anthropomorphized divine body; the nature of the relationship between the image (specifically the ṣalmu) and its divine referent; and the means by which the authoritative and authorized status of a divine image might be established, in order that the image might successfully presence the deity. Taking the ninth century BCE Sun God Tablet (SGT) from Sippar as case study, Sonik specifically examines the embedding of images within the pictorial stream of tradition as a means of establishing their authoritative status. Such an embedding might be accomplished through both pictorial and written strategies: pictorial compositions may be deliberately designed to incorporate archaizing motifs or elements, visually announcing their ties to the (or even a specific period of the) ancient and esteemed past; written accounts, for their part, might trace or deliberately construct an object’s relationship to a more ancient model or even authoritative prototype with origins in the divine sphere
Time and History in the Ancient Near East, 2013
The role of the frontally rendered, and specifically en face, figure in art of all mediums, spanning the period from the ancient through to the contemporary world, and the effect of its direct gaze on the viewer, has been a subject of active art historical and psychological discourse since the early publications of Alfred Yarbus, Ernst Gombrich, and Meyer Schapiro on how we look at images, on the relationship in image making between form and meaning and form and function, and on frontal and profile figures as potential symbols, capable of encoding and communicating messages to the viewer through their juxtaposition or interaction. In Mesopotamia, en face figures are depicted on cylinder seals from at least the Uruk Period, continuing to appear in that and other mediums through to the Neo- Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods. Outside of so-called popular art such as the terracotta plaques, however, the form is rare and seems to have been reserved primarily for two types of figures: female divinities such as Ishtar and the frontal nude goddess, and Zwischenwesen, figures of intermediate or “in-between” nature existing in the space between men and their gods and functioning as masters of animals, guardians and gatekeepers, and as apotropaic or threatening supernatural forces. This paper takes up recent studies in evolutionary psychology and visual and social cognition, seeking to elucidate some of the factors governing the use and meaning of the frontal face and direct gaze in Mesopotamian art as these pertain to the representation of Zwischenwesen (with an emphasis on monsters and daimons).
The mutual dialogue(s) between Archaeology and Bildwissenschaften has often been avoided as an issue in the discussion of Ancient Mesopotamian Art. In particular, pictures have too often been analysed out of their original context with biased results and judgments on the aesthetic, meaning and exploitation of images within the ancient societies. This paper brings to the fore such dialogue by using some case studies from Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs of first millennium BCE according to a twofold topic. Archaeology in Bildwissenschaften: this topic uses the architectural tradition of the royal palace throne room as a case study for illustrating some principles of the way reliefs were arranged along the walls of the room. The analysis will disclose that the arrangement of each image can only be fully understood in its architectural context and specifically in the light of a ‘bipolarity’ of the throne room, namely reliefs sparking negative emotions were confined at some distance from the royal throne while those evoking positive emotions were set close to the throne as well as the doubling of the body of the king. Bildwissenschaften in Archaeology: in dealing with hunt rituals ‒ specifically the scene of the king pouring libations over dead lion or bull ‒ this topic focuses on its emergence as a strong Assyrian tradition in the times of Assurnasirpal II (883–859 BCE) and Assurbanipal (668–631 BCE). Since there are no hunt rituals recorded on palace wall panels between the reigns of these two kings, it seems that Assurbanipal, as a known antiquarian, consciously adopted an antique iconographic motif. This phenomenon, which can be interpreted as an imitation, quotation, allusion, and perhaps homage, will be evaluated according to the modern notion of linguistic intertextuality applied to the realm of visual arts, namely intericonicity (or Interbildlichkeit).
The mutual dialogue(s) between Archaeology and Bildwissenschaften has often been avoided as an issue in the discussion of Ancient Mesopotamian Art. In particular, pictures have too often been analysed out of their original context with biased results and judgments on the aesthetic, meaning and exploitation of images within the ancient societies. This paper brings to the fore such dialogue by using some case studies from Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs of first millennium BCE according to a twofold topic. Archaeology in Bildwissenschaften: this topic uses the architectural tradition of the royal palace throne room as a case study for illustrating some principles of the way reliefs were arranged along the walls of the room. The analysis will disclose that the arrangement of each image can only be fully understood in its architectural context and specifically in the light of a ‘bipolarity’ of the throne room, namely reliefs sparking negative emotions were confined at some distance from the royal throne while those evoking positive emotions were set close to the throne as well as the doubling of the body of the king. Bildwissenschaften in Archaeology: in dealing with hunt rituals ‒ specifically the scene of the king pouring libations over dead lion or bull ‒ this topic focuses on its emergence as a strong Assyrian tradition in the times of Assurnasirpal II (883–859 BCE) and Assurbanipal (668–631 BCE). Since there are no hunt rituals recorded on palace wall panels between the reigns of these two kings, it seems that Assurbanipal, as a known antiquarian, consciously adopted an antique iconographic motif. This phenomenon, which can be interpreted as an imitation, quotation, allusion, and perhaps homage, will be evaluated according to the modern notion of linguistic intertextuality applied to the realm of visual arts, namely intericonicity (or Interbildlichkeit).
In respond ing to the visua l them e o f th e 3 rd ICAANE: "Re p resen tation des ideologi es ro y-ales et religieuses"/"Representations of Royal and Religious Id e ol o gies," I would lik e to take on the qu est ion of representation itsel f-n ot on ly th e fact o f, b ut th e power inhere nt in the vel) ' act of representation. In doing th is, I wo uld like to co ncent ra te on those instances in which th e two su b-sets-kings and go d s-the ro yal and the religi ous-actua lly co m e together, rather than remain-in g discreet classes of imagery. But before moving 10 substa nce, it is also imp ortant to n ote th at ano the r te rm in the th em e's titl e, the wo rd ideology, is probably one of the m o st over-used terms of ou r sc h olarly gene ratio n, a n d so also needs to b e clarified. Once used o n ly by Marxist historians, the term has finally p ercolat ed into "na tu ral" language to mean any belief system as represen ted , ver bally or visually. As I shall use it today, a definition o f "id e o logy" sho uld have several compo ne n ts, including th e co nscio us ac tivatio n a nd promulgation o f a co de d message o r m essages, origina ti ng fr om a defin abl e so u rc e, and design ed as a n e xp res-sive formulation with a mission: in short, a d esired co m m u n ica tio n act, gen erally (b u t o nly ge ne rally) emanating fro m an elite pow er structure and dire ct ed to a b road er, ofte n p opular, aud ience , with a view not only to narration, but to rationalization and per suasion. A gene ratio n ago, th e same th em e , "Representations of Royal and Religious Id eologies," would have been ca lle d simp ly "T he Iconogra phy of Kings a n d Gods ," and for some sc holarly o pe ra tions, th e two titl es co uld still be cons idere d syno nymo us. From the Ren aissance to th e 20th cen tury lega cy o f art historian, Erwin Panof sky (Ripa 159 3; Panofsky 1939, 195 5), "ico-nography" has b e e n co nsidered the key to m eaning in th e visual arts-the "what" of content , as distin ct fro m the "how" of style. The a n a lytical process o f uncovering meaning implicit in "iconogra phy"-the grap hing, or writing in , of meaning into imagery-required that one ha ve, in Pan ofsky's terms, a gove rn ing "text." That is, a text like the Gospels that would permit o ne to kn ow th at a pain ting like Leonardo d a Vinci's Last Supper was actu ally a reference to th at meal and n o o ther; o r tha t in Raphael's Marriage of th e Virgin , we are see ing n ot j ust any marriage, but th e vel)' union whose sig n i fica nce was directly related to the as-yet unoccupied and altar-less ch u rc h in the background. Once these d et erminations were made, the y could then be applied to other such images, creating clusters of like im ages, while the ac t of "do ing" icon ographical a nalysis was, in effect, th e d e-coding o f im ages accord ing to th e conve n tio nal "meanings" tha t la y behind the m .