Assyrian Sculpture in the Production and Experience of Architectural Space
This research project will examine the relationship(s) between Assyrian sculptural programs—those encompassing both text and image—and architectural space. More specifically, it will explore two related—yet opposed—questions. First, John Malcolm Russell has noted that little scholarly attention has been invested in elucidating the physical context in which Assyrian reliefs were originally displayed, which in turn has led to a relative paucity of theorizing about the ways they were perceived by their audience (Russell 1999:4-5). Consequently, the first portion of this paper will attempt to determine the extent to which factoring in the spatial placement of reliefs can expand and refine contemporary understanding about their iconographic and textual content, as well as their broader cultural meanings. Such an analysis will employ phenomenological theories about the production and experience of architectural space.
The second research question reverses the first, asking not: “What does spatial contextualization add to modern insights about the meaning of Assyrian reliefs?” but rather: “How does including reliefs as an integral component of architecture augment present-day understandings about Assyrian palaces?” Critiquing the arbitrary boundaries archaeologists and art and architectural historians have erected between art/architecture cross-culturally, this query thus probes the very definitions of architecture, space, and art: Are Assyrian wall reliefs “art?” Are they “architecture”? Can these two categories be adequately distinguished, either in the Assyrian context or in others? Questions such as these, which the Assyrian material seems well-suited to address, thus articulate well with attempts to redefine Western notions about images, representation, architecture, space, and the (experiencing) body in a culturally and historically specific setting. Research will probably focus on palatial contexts at Nineveh.
(Very) Preliminary Bibliography
Pittman, Holly. 1998. The White Obelisk and the Problem of Historical Narrative in the Art of Assyria. Art Bulletin 78(2):334-355.
Reade, Julian Edgeworth. 1975. Assyrian Architectural Decoration: Techniques and Subject-Matter. Baghdader Mitteilungen 10:17-49.
Reade, Julian Edgeworth. 1979. The Architectural Context of Assyrian Sculpture. Baghdader Mitteilungen 10:75-80.
Reade, Julian Edgeworth. 1981. Neo-Assyrian Monuments in their Historical Context. In F.M. Fales, ed., Assyrian Royal Inscriptions: New Horizons in Literary, Ideological and Historical Analysis, pp. 143-167. Roma: Instituto per l’Oriente, Centro per le Antichita e la Storia dell’Arte Vicino Oriente.
Reade, Julian Edgeworth. 1983. Assyrian Sculpture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Reade, Julian Edgeworth. 2000. Restructuring the Assyrian Sculptures. In R. Dittman et al., eds., Variatio Delectat: Iran und der Westen, pp. 607-625. Munster: Ugarit-Verlag.
Russell, John Malcolm. 1987. “Bulls for the Palace and Order in the Empire: The Sculptural Program of Sennacherib’ Court VI at Nineveh.” Art Bulletin 69(4):520-539.
Russell, John Malcolm. 1999. The Writing on the Wall: Studies in the Architectural Context of Late Assyrian Palace Inscriptions. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns.
Winter, Irene J. 1981. Royal rhetoric and the development of historical narrative in Neo-Assyrian reliefs. Studies in Visual Communication 7: 2-38.
inter, Irene J. 1983. The Program of the throneroom of Asurnasirpal II. In Essays on Near Eastern Art and Archaeology in Honor of Charles Kyrle Wilkinson. P.O.Harper & H.Pittman (eds.), 15-31. New York.
Winter, Irene J. 1991. Reading concepts of space from ancient Mesopotamian monuments. In Concepts of space: ancient and modern, Kapila Vatsyayan (ed.), 57-73. New Delhi.
Winter, Irene J. 1993. Seat of kingship/a wonder to behold: the palace as construct in the ancient Near East. Ars Orientalis. 23:27-55.
Architecture and Sculpture in Assyria_2.ppt