Page 76 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

CHAPTER 4
THE NEO-SUMERIAN PERIOD
<2125-2025 B.C.)>

THE PERIOD OF ISIN, LARSA, AND BABYLON
AND
<2025-1594 B.C.)

Lagash

The Akkadian dynasty was overthrown by the Guti, wild mountaineers from the
north-east who contributed nothing to the civilization of the plain which they ran-
sacked. The Akkadian kings had fought them repeatedly, and rock steles carved in the
homeland of the barbarians recorded their initial successes and were intended to deter
further assaults. But the mountaineers gradually gained ascendancy, the dominion of the
latest Sargonid kings was narrowly circumscribed, and the Guti finally entered the plain
and held it for about sixty years. After that, the Sumerian south took up the challenge,
drove them out, and reunited the realm under the kings of Ur. But before this occurred
one city-state seems to have escaped from the Guti or to have paid blackmail to their
chieftains. In any case, the city of Lagash flourished exceedingly and produced, under
Gudca and his son Ur-Ningirsu, exquisite works of art and literature.1
In the sculptures from Lagash - modern Tclloh - the technical achievements of the
Akkadian period are utilized, but of the aspirations of that time not a trace remains.
Piety replaces vigour. We know from texts that the domination of the Guti was felt as
a cruel humiliation, and Neo-Sumerian art, from Gudea of Lagash to the end of the
Third Dynasty of Ur, dwelt with complacency on the close relation with the gods which
was the prerogative of the lawful occupants of the land. Gudea’s works do not reflect a
shadow of the troubles of the age, but are pervaded by the confidence and gaiety of the
truly devout. A score of statues represents the ruler, standing or seated, with folded
hands, bare-headed or wearing a woollen cap. They resemble one another so closely that
our plates 46-8 adequately represent the whole group. The material is costly and very
hard diorite, carved with complete mastery and brought to an extraordinary perfection
of finish; note the long, fine fingers, the bare right arm, the feet, the manner in which
the body is indicated under the woollen shawl. The sculptors of Gudea combine, in all
these respects, the traditions of the Akkadian school, as is shown by a damaged diorite
statue of Sargon s son Manishtusu.2 Although the intense vitality of the best Akkadian
works is absent from Gudea’s sculpture, they possess the same firmness and precision of
modelling and the same richness in the play of light provoked by the stone. The monu-
mentality of these statues can best be appreciated if we compare them with a work which
ren ers the same subject in an entirely different way (Plate 49). This is a small statuette of

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