Visiting The Met? The Temple of Dendur will be closed Sunday, April 27 through Friday, May 9. The Met Fifth Avenue will be closed Monday, May 5.

Learn more

How the dizzying repetition of these Assyrian reliefs gives them hyperreality

"That infinite image creates an endless echoing, which is almost dizzying and supernatural."

"That infinite image creates an endless echoing, which is almost dizzying and supernatural."

Curator Kim Benzel on an Assyrian relief panel.

Explore this object:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/322611

Throughout 2013, The Met invited curators from across the Museum to each talk about one artwork that changed the way they see the world. Each episode is interpreted by a Museum photographer.

Photography by Bruce J. Schwarz

Subscribe for new content from The Met: https://www.youtube.com/user/metmuseum?sub_confirmation=1

#TheMet #ArtExplained #Art


Contributors

Kim Benzel
Curator in Charge, Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art

Close-up of a Queen of Clubs playing card with a cut-out section. Behind it, a faded, ghostly face is visible, creating a surreal, mysterious mood.
The artist’s work challenges the social and political context of mass incarceration.
Lisa Sutcliffe
April 28
Photo image of The Great Hall of the Met, with hanging calligraphy paintings
Explore how the Taiwanese artist’s Great Hall Commission invites a transhistorical conversation about the art of writing
Lesley Ma
February 28
More in:Art Explained

A slider containing 1 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Relief panel, Gypsum alabaster, Assyrian
Assyrian
ca. 883–859 BCE