“That infinite image creates an endless echoing, which is almost dizzying and supernatural.”
Curator Kim Benzel on an Assyrian relief panel.
Hyperreality
Kim Benzel
2 min. watch
Contributors
Kim Benzel
Curator in Charge, Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art
Curator in Charge, Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art
Photography by Bruce J. Schwarz
Art Mentioned
Assyrian
ca. 883–859 BCE
More from The Met
This small plaque of Mark the Evangelist, represented by a lion holding a book between its wings, stands for many stories that illustrate facets of medieval Christian faith.
Guadalupe Nettel
October 8
An encounter with an ancient devotional figure reminds us that images can stand in for people.
Adam Eaker
October 6
Video
In Part 1 of this two-part program on the natural phenomenon of light and its representation in art, Austrian art historian Sir Ernst Gombrich discusses illumination, shadows, and the direction of light source.
September 22