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Decorative Plaque: Man; and Griffin in Combat
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This small plaque was executed in the Phoenician style with symmetrical compositions, elongated figural proportions, and Egyptian subjects and motifs. Examples have been found throughout the Middle East, but thousands come from Nimrud where most were excavated in the storerooms of a military arsenal built by King Shalmaneser II (858-824 bc). When the Nimrud palace was sacked in the 7th century bc, these ivories were thrown into a well, where Sir Max Mallowan (the husband of Agatha Christie) discovered them in 1951. The monumental wall relief (1943.246) was found at the same Assyrian palace at Nimrud.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineDecorative Plaque: Man; and Griffin in Combat, 900–800 BCE. Phoenicia, Iraq, Nimrud. Ivory; overall: 6.5 x 3.9 cm (2 9/16 x 1 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1968.45
