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Why the brick lions that protected the streets of Babylon feel alive

"It always had this possibility to come alive in a very real sense."

"It always had this possibility to come alive in a very real sense."

Curator Sarah Graff on two panels with striding lions.

Featured artworks:
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https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/322586

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 Peter Zeray

"Dawn over the Euphrates, Babylon, 1900" by Walter Andrae courtesy of Berlin State Library, Department of Manuscripts, Walter Andrae estate

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Contributors

Sarah Graff
Associate Curator, Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art

A small wooden carved box featuring figures and a tree in relief.
The author of After Sappho offers a queer feminist reading of Eve and the serpent, reimagining sin as likeness, desire, and bodies transcending gender and species.
Selby Wynn Schwartz
January 9
A close-up detail of a painted face rendered in muted green, blue, and gray tones.
Author Leena Krohn reflects on Helene Schjerfbeck’s portrait of Sigrid Nyberg.
Leena Krohn
December 18, 2025
Black woman wearing all black, standing in front of mannequins dressed in blue, yellow and beige.
Video

Superfine Artist Tanda Francis, shares her inspiration behind the design of the custom mannequins used in the Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibition.

October 23, 2025
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Panel with striding lion, Ceramic, glaze, Babylonian
Babylonian
ca. 604–562 BCE
Panel with striding lion, Ceramic, glaze, Babylonian
Babylonian
ca. 604–562 BCE