Breath of Heaven, Breath of Earth
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Breath of Heaven, Breath of Earth ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN ART FROM AMERICAN COLLECTIONS TRUDY S. KAWAMI AND JOHN OLBRANTZ hallie ford museum of art willamette university 2013 distributed by university of washington press 2 running foot left seattle and london running foot right 3 Contents This book was published in connection with an exhibition arranged Page 6 and Plate 32, page 134: Relief fragment with a battle scene; by the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University entitled Iraq, excavated by William Kennett Loftus in August of 1854 from 7 Preface Breath of Heaven, Breath of Earth: Ancient Near Eastern Art from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh, Neo-Assyrian Period, American Collections. The dates for the exhibition were August 31– reign of Sennacherib, 705–681 BCE; limestone or gypseous alabaster; December 22, 2013. H: 10 in. (25.4 cm), W: 8 ½ in. (21.6 cm); Seattle Art Museum, Eugene 13 Dedication Fuller Memorial Collection and Hagop Kevorkian, 46.49. Financial support for the exhibition and book was provided by an 16 Civilizations in the Sand: Archaeologists, Collectors, and the endowment gift from the Hallie Ford Exhibition Fund and an “Art Page 12 and Plate 57, page 172: Statuette of a monkey; Iran, first half of American Discovery of the Ancient Near East Works” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the 3rd millennium BCE; limestone; H: 2 ⅛ in. (5.4 cm), W: 1 7⁄16 in. by general operating support grants from the City of Salem’s TOT (3.7 cm), D: 1 ¾ in. (4.5 cm); Brooklyn Museum, purchased with funds funds and the Oregon Arts Commission. Additional support for a given by Shelby White, 1991.3. 58 Breath of Heaven, Breath of Earth: Ancient Near Eastern Art lecture and film series was provided by the Center for Ancient Studies from American Collections and Archaeology and the Department of Art History at Willamette Pages 16–17 and fig. 1.13, page 32: View of the excavations at Kish, University. with Field Director Charles Watlin and workmen in the foreground, 1928–1929. 68 The Divine Realm Designed by Phil Kovacevich Pages 58–59: View of Alalakh, Turkey, from the northeast at moonrise. Editorial review by Sigrid Asmus 106 The Human Realm Pages 106–107 and fig.2 .2, page 60 (middle): View of Hattuša (modern Printed and bound in Canada by Friesen’s, Inc. Boğazköy), the Hittite capital, central Turkey. 144 The Animal Realm Front cover and Plate 30, page 132: Male figure; Iraq, excavated from Pages 144–145 and fig. 4.6, page 152 (top): View of the Lion Gate at the Nintu Temple, Level VI, Room Q 44: 151 at Khafaje, Mid-to- Hattuša (modern Boğazköy), Turkey, 15th–13th century BCE 182 Selected Bibliography Late Early Dynastic Period, 2700–2500 BCE; alabaster, shell, and lapis lazuli; H: 9 in. (23 cm), W: 3 ⅛ in. (8 cm), D: 2 ¾ in. (7 cm); © 2013 by the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 186 Chronology Joint Bagdad School/University Museum Expedition to Mesopotamia, Essay © 2013 by Trudy S. Kawami 1937, 37-15-28. 188 Map Essay © 2013 by John Olbrantz Back cover and Plate 54, page 169: Sherd with stags; Turkey, excavated from Alishar Hüyük, 800–700 BCE; ceramic with slip; H: 6 in. (15.3 All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced 190 Photo Credits cm), W: 7 ⅜ in. (18.8 cm); The Oriental Institute of the University of or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, Chicago, A10266. without permission in writing from the publisher. Endpapers: Panoramic view of Göbekli Tepe, Turkey. Library of Congress Control Number 2012947128 ISBN 9781930957688 Frontispiece and Plate 14, page 96: Standing male figure; Lebanon, from Jezzine, late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE; copper; 13 ½ in. Distributed by (34.3 cm), W: 4 in. (10.2 cm), D: 2 in. (5.1 cm); Private collection, University of Washington Press New York. P.O. Box 50096 Seattle, WA 98145-5096 4 Preface It seems as if I have been working on Breath of Heaven, Breath of Earth: Ancient Near Eastern Art from American Collections forever, or at least thinking about it forever. The genesis of the exhibition had its origins in 2002 when the late Jim Romano, curator of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Brooklyn Museum, and I co-organized an exhibition of Egyptian art at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art entitled In the Fullness of Time: Masterpieces of Egyptian Art from American Collections. Jim was my best friend for twenty-five years (I was the best man in his wedding and we would always spend time together when I traveled to the East Coast or he traveled to the West Coast) and we both agreed that working on the exhibition and its accompanying book was one of the highlights of our professional lives. As we were working on the project together, we talked about organizing a sequel on the art of the ancient Near East. As with the Egyptian exhibition, the ancient Near Eastern exhibi- tion would focus on objects from American collections. The objects would be of high quality but smaller in scale. The exhibition would be scholarly in nature and would be organized to Relief fragment with introduce visitors to some of the key ideas and themes in ancient Near Eastern art. Finally, the a battle scene exhibition would be designed to introduce audiences in the western United States to important Iraq, excavated by William Kennett Loftus in August of yet rarely seen examples of ancient Near Eastern art. Tragically, Jim was killed in an automobile 1854 from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh, accident the following summer and, at least for a time, the second exhibition that we envi- Neo-Assyrian Period, reign of sioned with such excitement and enthusiasm was set aside. Sennacherib, 705–681 BCE; Limestone or gypseous alabaster; H: 10 (25.4 cm), W: 8 ½ in. (21.5 cm); Seattle Art Museum, For several years after Jim’s death I thought about the exhibition often and finally decided Eugene Fuller Memorial to revive the project in his honor and memory. Fortunately, I had an opportunity to meet Collection and Hagop Kevorkian, 46.49. Trudy Kawami when I gave the eulogy at Jim’s memorial service in 2003. Trudy is Director of 6 running foot left 7 Research at the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation in New York and had organized an exhibition of and to Director Nicole Mitchell for her ongoing interest in our exhibitions and accompanying ancient bronzes from the Asian grasslands that we presented in 2006. I invited Trudy to lecture books. At Willamette University, I would like to thank President Steve Thorsett and College of in conjunction with the exhibition and discovered that she and Jim were good friends and had Liberal Arts Dean Marlene Moore for their support of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, and Pat worked together on a couple of projects. As we talked and got to know each other, I discovered Alley (grant writer extraordinaire!) for providing further editorial review for my essay. that she has a PhD degree from Columbia University in Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archae- ology, and when I asked her if she would consider working with me on the exhibition and In addition to my acknowledgments, Trudy would like to express her thanks and appreciation book, she enthusiastically agreed. to a number of individuals for their help and advice with various aspects of the project: Pauline Albenda; Katherine Blanchard from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology Breath of Heaven, Breath of Earth: Ancient Near Eastern Art from American Collections features and Anthropology; Marc Cooper from Southwest Missouri State University; Peter Daniels; Jean sixty-four objects on loan from some of the most distinguished public and private collections Evans from the Nippur Project at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago; Ulla Kas- in the United States. The title of the exhibition comes from a verse in the Sumerian flood story ten from the Yale University Babylonian Collection; Renee Kovacs; Karen Rubinson from the where Enlil remakes the world using that phrase. Didactic in nature, the exhibition encom- Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University; Ron Wallenfels; Karen passes the geographic regions of Mesopotamia, Syria and the Levant, Anatolia, and Iran, and Wilson from the Field Museum of Natural History; and K. Aslihan Yener from Koc University explores several broad themes found in the art and cultures of the ancient Near East: gods in Istanbul and the University of Chicago. and goddesses, men and women, and animals, both real and supernatural. Objects have been selected because they are of high quality although smaller in scale, and because they reveal a Breath of Heaven, Breath of Earth: Ancient Near Eastern Art from American Collections would not wealth of information about the people and cultures that produced them: their mythology, reli- have been possible without the friendship and support of a number of institutions and indi- gious beliefs, concepts of kingship, social structure, and daily life. viduals around the country who agreed to lend objects to the exhibition because they believed in the importance of the project and, for those who knew Jim, who wanted to honor him. An exhibition and book of this magnitude would not have been possible without the help and support of a number of individuals and institutions. First and foremost, I would like to thank I would like to express my thanks and appreciation to Ulla Kasten at the Yale University Baby- my friend, colleague, co-curator, and collaborator Trudy Kawami.