The head of this sculpture is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum while the body belongs to the Louvre Museum in Paris. The Louvre acquired its headless statue in 1925, the Metropolitan Museum acquired its head in 1947, and since 1974 the ensemble has been on exhibit alternately in New York City and Paris. It is not known when the head was broken from the statue. The fact that the Louvre's and Metropolitan Museum's two sections join is very rare. Equally rare is the stone, which is in the chlorite family.
This sculpture depicts a standing figure with clasped hands. An inscription written in cuneiform on its back names Ur-Ningirsu, ruler of the city of Lagash and the son and successor of Gudea. Beneath the feet is a high base with a scene depicting in relief eight kneeling men carrying objects, perhaps as tribute bearers. The head of this statue, as well as the pose of the body and the hand position, conform to the stylistic and formal representation of the many statues of Gudea.
The Sumerian inscription on his back reads as follows:
For Ninĝišzida, his personal god, Ur-Ninĝirsu, ruler of Lagaš, son of Gudea, ruler of Lagaš, the builder Ninĝirsu's E-ninnu, fashioned his own statue. He named this statue for his sake "As I am someone loved by his personal god, may my life be prolonged!", and brought it before him into his temple.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Statue of Ur-Ningirsu, son of Gudea
Period:Neo-Sumerian
Date:ca. 2080 BCE
Geography:Mesopotamia, probably from Girsu (modern Tello)
Culture:Neo-Sumerian
Medium:Chlorite
Dimensions:H. 55 cm (21 5/8 in.)
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1947 and Lent by Musée du Louvre
Object Number:47.100.86+L.2014.59
The head of this statue was purchased in 1925 from Elias S. David, London, by Joseph Brummer (Brummer inv. no. P2050). The Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased it from the estate of Joseph Brummer in 1947 (47.100.86). The Louvre had acquired the headless statue in 1925 (AO 9504, L.2014.59), and since 1974 the ensemble has been on exhibit alternately in New York City and Paris.
“Art of the Ancient Near East.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, March 4, 1949–September 5, 1949.
“Treasured Masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Tokyo National Museum, The Kyoto Municipal Museum, Japan, August 10, 1972–November 26, 1972.
“The Grand Gallery,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 19, 1974–January 5, 1975.
"Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, May 8–August 17, 2003.
Thureau-Dangin, François. 1924. "Statuettes de Tello." Monuments et Mémoires Publiés par l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Fondation Eugène Piot, vol. 27. Paris, pl. IX-X.
Pijoan, José. 1931. Arte del Asia occidental. Summa Artis, Historia General del Arte, vol. II. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. 110, fig. 150.
Musée du Louvre. 1937. Encyclopédie Photographique de l'Art. Paris: Éditions Tel, pp. 240-241.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin Incorporating the Seventy-Eighth Annual Report of the Trustees for the Year 1947 (Summer, 1948), p. 12.
Wilkinson, Charles K. 1949. "The Art of the Ancient Near East." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 7 (7), p. 186-189, ill. p. 190.
Opificius, R. 1957-71. "Girsu." Reallexikon der Assyriologie III, p. 397.
Parrot, André. 1957. "Acquisitions et Inédits du Musée du Louvre: 6. Sculpture Mésopotamienne." Syria, 34 (3/4), p. 229, fig. 7.
Parrot, André. 1960. Sumer. Paris: Gallimard, pp. 218-19, figs. 268-69.
Pritchard, James B. 1969. The Ancient Near East in Pictures, 2nd edition with supplement. Princeton: PUP, no. 434 (head); no. 435 (body).
Hrouda, Barthel. 1971. Vorderasien I: Mesopotamien, Babylonien, Iran und Anatolien. München: Beck, pl. 63ab.
Tokyo National Museum. 1972. Treasured Masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, exh. cat. no. 3.
Hoving, Thomas. 1973. "Report of the Director." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 104, (Jul. 1,1973 - Jun. 30, 1974), p. 11.
Amiet, Pierre. 1974. "La Statue d'Ur-Ningirsu Reconstituée." La Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France, nos. 4-5, pp. 243-246
Müller-Karpe, Hermann. 1974. Handbuch der Vorgeschichte, Band III. München: Beck, pl. 190, no. 6.
Forsyth, William H. 1974. "Acquisitions from the Brummer Gallery." In The Grand Gallery at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 3-4.
The Connoisseur 187, Oct. 1974, front cover.
Orthmann, Winfried. 1975. "Neusumerische Rundplastik." Der Alte Orient 14. Berlin: Propyläen Verlag, p. 178, pl. 62a, b [wrong head illustrated].
Amiet, Pierre. 1976. L'Art Sumérien. Petits Guides des Grands Musées, Musée du Louvre. Paris: RMN, pp. 10-11, p. 13 (ill.).
Johansen, Flemming. 1978. Statues of Gudea: Ancient and Modern. Mesopotamia, Copenhagen Studies in Assyriology 6, pls. 118--120, p. 39, p. 48, note 132.
Schlossman, Betty. 1978. "Portraiture in Mesopotamia in the Late Third and Early Second Millennium B.C. Part 1: The Late Third Millennium," Archiv fur Orientforschung XXVI, pp. 64-7.
Ratie, Suzanne. 1979. La Reine Hatchepsout. Leiden: Brill, p. 131, note 53.
Amiet, Pierre. 1980. Art of the Ancient Near East, New York: H.N. Abrams, pls. 51-52.
Spycket, Agnès. 1981. La Statuaire du Proche-Orient Ancien. Leiden-Köln: E.J. Brill, pl. 131.
Harper, Prudence O. et al. 1983. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Selections from the Collection of the Ancient Near East Department, exh. cat. Tokyo: Chunichi Shimbun, fig. 3.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1983. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide, edited by Kathleen Howard. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 54, fig. 21.
Harper, Prudence O. et al. 1984. "Ancient Near Eastern Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 41 (4), Spring 1984, p. 51, fig. 69.
Hansen, Donald P. 1988. "A Sculpture of Gudea, Governor of Lagash." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 64 (1), p. 12.
Steible, Horst. 1991. Die neusumerischen Bau- und Weihinschriften, Teil I: Inschriften der II. Dynastie von Lagaš. Freiburger altorientalische Studien 9.1. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, pp. 365-6.
Invernizzi, Antonio. 1992. Dal Tigri All'Eufrate II: Babilonesi E Assiri. Firenze: Casa editrice Le lettere, p. 59, fig. 89.
Edzard, Dietz-Otto. 1997. Gudea and his Dynasty. The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Early Periods Volume 3/1. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 185-186, no. 6.
Muscarella, Oscar W. 2003. "Standing statue of Ur-Ningirsu." In Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus, exh. cat. edited by Joan Aruz, with Ronald Wallenfels. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 307, pp. 431-433.
Rakic, Yelena. 2012. "Kunst für das Volk: Das Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art im Metropolitan Museum of Art." Antike Welt 2012 (6), p. 88, fig. 5.
Bahrani, Zainab. 2017. Art of Mesopotamia. London and New York: Thames and Hudson, p. 147, fig. 6.10.
Charpin, Dominique. 2020. “First Kingdoms: When Kingship Descended from Heaven…” in Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins, exh. cat. edited by Timothy Potts and Ariane Thomas. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, p. 63, fig. 62.
Dunn-Vaturi, Anne and Martina Rugiadi. 2023. "The Brummer Gallery and the Making of Iranian and Islamic Arts." In The Brummer Galleries, Paris and New York: Defining Taste from Antiquities to the Avant-Garde, edited by Christine Brennan, Christel Hollevoet-Force, and Yaëlle Biro. Boston: Brill, pp. 417 and 430, n. 19 and 74, Table 10.1, no. 41.
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Includes more than 7,000 works ranging in date from the eighth millennium B.C. through the centuries just beyond the time of the Arab conquests of the seventh century A.D.
