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

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Contributors

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

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Relief panel, Gypsum alabaster, Assyrian
Assyrian
ca. 883–859 BCE