The Contrasting Art of Two Ancient Empires

Reading: Strickland pp 6-11: the art of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt

Reading: Joshua Mark (World History Encyclopedia), “A Brief History of Egyptian Art”

Reading: British Museum, articles on the Assyrian Empire and Ashurbanipal, both written in connection with a 2018 exhibit. (The first was written by curator Gareth Brereton; the second is unsigned.)

Optional: for additional information on the Assyrians, check out British Museum articles on the library and palace gardens of Ashurbanipal. (The first of these articles was written by curator Jonathan Taylor; the second is unsigned.)

Viewing:

Museum of Fine Arts Boston highlights from Egyptian Art.
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, highlights from Ancient Near Eastern Art.
British Museum virtual tour of reliefs from the palace of Ashurnasirpal (walk forward between the two lamassu and down the long hallway, until you come out the other end).

Confused? I’m also struggling to keep straight the difference between Ashurnasirpal and Ashurbanipal. –nasirpal came first, followed 200 years later by –banipal. –banipal is the scholar-warrior whose library preserved key Babylonian texts like the Enuma Elish and Gilgamesh. But -nasirpal’s palace was better preserved (link) than -banipal’s was (link) so when the British Museum tries to reconstruct what life was like for the more intesting scholar-warrior -banipal, they make use of artistic reconstructions of -nasirpal’s palace (link).

Writing: choose one of the artworks on display in the Boston MFA’s Egyptian or Ancient Near East galleries (linked above).

Download the image to your computer, then add the image to a comment you post.
In your comment, use what you learned from the reading to comment on the artifact: “This stylus is unusual for the Middle Kingdom in that …” or “This bas-relief is typical of Assyrian decorative art in that ….” Include a parenthetical page ref.
Before posting, check to see if someone else has already commented on the same artifact; if so, post your response as a reply to theirs, whether in agreement, in disagreement, or by calling attention to a different aspect of the same artifact. Don’t bother to attach the image a second time.