While humans are invariably shown as impassive and emotionless, the sculptors often showed various animals in states of fear or suffering. This lioness bellows in distress, and bleeds from numerous wounds, including one that may have severed her spine. In Assyrian art, lions represent enemies hostile to civilization. The fact that the artistic style empathizes with this dying animal provides an interesting perspective on the imperial ideology. This scene is one of many in Ashurbanipal’s (668–631 BC) palace at Nineveh that show wounded lions and it remains one of the masterpieces of Assyrian art.
Nineveh (modern Kuyunjik, Iraq) North Palace, Room C, Slab 26
Assyrian, mid-7th century BC
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East 1890.7.25
Modern painted resin cast of plaster copy of British Museum, London original 124856
Photogrammetry by Zhejiang University and Mohamed Abd elaziz
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