Cast of relief: musicians

Mrs. John Crosby Brown (1842-1918) formed the Crosby Brown Collections 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 garden scene showing musicians playing on a lyre, vertical harp, and double pipes. The original forms the right end of the relief known as the Banquet of Ashurbanipal (r. ca. 668-627 B.C.) (BM 124922).