Belt buckle with Assyrian human-headed winged bull
Not on view
Following the excavation of Assyrian palaces in the mid-nineteenth century, ancient Mesopotamian imagery began to be used in European decorative arts, including jewelry and ceramics. Publicity in the form of news coverage and popular books around the excavations, removal of many sculptures from sites in northern Iraq to England and France, and public spectacles such as the reconstructed ‘Nineveh Court’ in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, London, fostered a fascination with Assyria and Assyrian art among the Victorian public.
The design on this belt buckle shows a relatively faithful image of one of the human-headed winged bull gateway guardian figures, known as lamassu, from the palace of Sargon II (r. 722–705 BCE) at Khorsabad. These figures, and similar winged lions, were the motifs most commonly used in Assyrian revival jewelry and decorative arts. The buckle was made in silver but later gilded.
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