Cast of relief: musicians
Mrs. John Crosby Brown (1842-1918) formed the Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments of All Nations, totaling about 3600 pieces, which she donated to the museum, beginning in 1889. In the early twentieth century, the display of this collection was enhanced by casts of Assyrian, ancient Greek, and medieval European (89.4.3506, 89.4.3507) reliefs and sculptures showing musicians. These casts were placed over cases containing drawings of instruments based on ancient sources.
Three reproductions of Assyrian reliefs from the palaces at Nimrud and Nineveh were selected from the museum’s collection of casts to be displayed in the Musical Instruments galleries. This one is a detail from a wall panel, made after an original in the British Museum, showing King Ashurbanipal (r. ca. 668-627 B.C.) celebrating a lion hunt (BM 124887). It corresponds to the left of the libation scene with a musician playing a seven-stringed horizontal harp and beside him a second figure, possibly another harpist.
Three reproductions of Assyrian reliefs from the palaces at Nimrud and Nineveh were selected from the museum’s collection of casts to be displayed in the Musical Instruments galleries. This one is a detail from a wall panel, made after an original in the British Museum, showing King Ashurbanipal (r. ca. 668-627 B.C.) celebrating a lion hunt (BM 124887). It corresponds to the left of the libation scene with a musician playing a seven-stringed horizontal harp and beside him a second figure, possibly another harpist.
Artwork Details
- Title: Cast of relief: musicians
- Date: Modern, after 7th century BCE original
- Medium: Plaster, painted
- Dimensions: 20 1/2 × 20 1/2 in. (52.1 × 52.1 cm)
- Credit Line: The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889
- Object Number: 89.4.3497
- Curatorial Department: Ancient West Asian Art
More Artwork
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Assyrian
ca. 9th–8th century BCE
Achaemenid
ca. 358–338 BCE
Assyrian
ca. 883–859 BCE
Hittite
ca. 10th−9th century BCE
Assyrian
ca. 9th–8th century BCE
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