A MESOPOTAMIAN SERPENTINE BULL HEAD, MESOPOTAMIA, DATE TO BE CONFIRMED

拍品描述

A MESOPOTAMIAN SERPENTINE BULL HEAD, MESOPOTAMIA, DATE TO BE CONFIRMED Carved from a dark green serpentine of mottled surface, the head frontal and symmetrical, the muzzle short and blunt with softly modelled nostrils and pursed lips. The eyes are large, lentoid, and set beneath heavy relief brows that meet at the bridge of the nose in a continuous ridge. Between the eyes, a narrow vertical element descends from the brow-line to the muzzle. Above, a broad triangular forelock or frontal boss is dressed with fine zigzag chasing, framed on either side by the outward-curving horns which rise from the crown and terminate in blunt points. The stone retains a natural glossy polish across the higher planes, with lighter mineral inclusions visible in the recesses. The face reads as bovine but is treated with a marked degree of anthropomorphic feeling, the frontal composition, the emphatic brow, and the large staring eyes departing from purely naturalistic zoomorphic modelling. Bull imagery in Mesopotamian art carries a consistent register of meaning across the third and second millennia B.C., associated with strength, fertility, and the storm and moon deities, and the bull head as an isolated motif appears widely as an applied ornament on vessels, lyres, furniture fittings, and votive objects. The scale of the present piece, together with the flat and slightly irregular reverse suggested by the profile, is consistent with use as an inlay or applied element rather than as a figure in the round. Serpentine was among the harder decorative stones worked in Mesopotamian ateliers, prized for its deep colouration and its capacity to take a high polish. Unlike the softer chlorites and steatites of the Iranian plateau, serpentine required patient abrasive working, and its use for small figural elements signals a commission of some care. The dark green stone would have contrasted with the pale shell, bitumen, and lapis lazuli inlays that typically accompanied such compositions, and small serpentine heads of this kind are known from a range of Mesopotamian and neighbouring contexts spanning several centuries. This head exemplifies the compact, frontal, and strongly stylised treatment of bovine subjects in early Mesopotamian stone carving, where iconographic clarity and material presence take precedence over anatomical description. The confidence of the cutting, particularly in the chased forelock and the paired ridges of the brow, places it within the accomplished end of the small-scale lapidary tradition. Dimensions: Height: 2.5cm Note to cataloguer: the supplied date field reads "(see title)" but the title carries no period. A Mesopotamian bull head in serpentine could plausibly sit anywhere from the late fourth millennium B.C. through the early second millennium B.C., and the description above has been written without a period assignment. Please confirm the intended dating before publication.

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