Ages upon ages ago, I devoted a small portion of my education to studying Mesopotamia. I couldn't win a multiple~choice quiz show with what little I remember of it now; but it was an utterly enjoyable experience.
When I heard of the art museum looting, I could appreciate the loss on an academic level; but it didn't touch me on a gut level.
It hit me this morning, when a human face was put on it.
This morning I checked out the only detailed catalogue of the museum online, provided by The Art Newspaper.
(If you choose to peruse it, be aware that as of this posting some of the descriptions and images have been mismatched; it seems as if two columns of text on a page are occasionally switched here & there.)
She is the first image of the Sumerian section of the catalogue. She was the first image projected upon the screen in the first class wherein I studied Eastern Art.
It was impressed upon us, when first we saw her, that she was the most important one to remember, and that everything else would be anti-climactic. She would most definitely, we were told, be on the slide-recognition test of final exam; and so she was. She was the first slide, in fact.
"White marble head of a Sumerian woman, considered to be one of the finest works of ancient sculpture, from Warka, datable to 3000 BC ."
I would have very much liked to have gone to see her; but alas... she has been liberated.
I'm still going through the online catalogue; but appears that the bulk of the examples cited either in textbooks or by my professor were housed in that museum. So most of the things I have studied are gone, or have at least dropped out of sight 'semi-permanently'.
The closest I will ever get to them will be the closest I remain to them:
A group* of us studying Museum Curation went on a few field trips to various cities. At the University of Chicago we visited the Oriental Institute Museum, which specializes in eastern antiquities.**
I saw this lamassu there, who is a companion to their lamassu; wonder whether anyone managed to cart that one away.
The original is still in the Louvre; but I saw a reasonable facsimile of their reasonable facsimile there.
There were other things, but sadly, the memory needs to be jogged more often these days. Exercise, exercise, exercise.
I will have to go over old notes and try to remember what I have lost.
~ { & } ~ { & } ~ { & } ~
* What is the collective noun for a group of art historians? A smattering? A dabble? ~~ that would be more appropriate for artists, as in "a dabble of Sunday painters". An appreciation, or an appraisal, perhaps? Or better yet ~ a footnote?
**The translated bits of preserved writings were especially fascinating. I haven't been able to find the one that was my favourite at the time; either I am looking in the wrong collection, or it was part of a temporary exhibition, or it's since been proved a fake. It was a letter from a student to his parents, guilting them for more money: "Fred's parents give him loads of nice things, even though he's only adopted, they love him more than you love me!" or words to that effect.
Posted by edgar at April 21, 2003 11:44 AM
