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:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/322585
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

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February 28
Wood scene showing a commotion of figures and animals in distress
Video
Listen to an optical poem illustrating W. H. Auden’s recitation of “Woods” with artworks from The Met collection, juxtaposed with footage of wildlife in Kingston, New York.
February 21
The people standing together in a gallery with hard hanging from the wall, facing them.
Video

Join Alison Hokanson, Curator in the Department of European Paintings, and Joanna Sheers Seidenstein, Assistant Curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints, along with Max Hollein, Marina Kellen French Director and CEO, to virtually explore Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature.

February 20
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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