Mastiff

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dogs were regularly represented in the arts of Mesopotamia from earliest times, and were particularly popular in the later second millennium B.C. in central Babylonia. This clay mastiff is hollow on the inside. It retains traces of polychromy on its body, and remains of inlay in its eyes. The animal’s forehead wrinkles, snout, teeth, and muscular shoulders are carefully depicted. A braided collar circles the dog’s neck, and its tail is shown folded around its right hind leg. There is a hole at the top of its head, which may have held a standard in antiquity, perhaps similar to that shown in a contemporary seal carving in the Metropolitan's collection (1985.357.44). In the ancient Near East, dogs were often associated with Gula, the goddess of healing. This dog is depicted in a watchful pose – seated, with an open mouth and forward-facing ears, now partially broken – and may have been set up as a guardian figure as well as a standard-bearer. Kassite artists were particularly skilled in sculpting clay, creating both sculptures and three dimensional brick compositions.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art cares for approximately 7,000 works ranging in date from the eighth millennium B.C. through the centuries just beyond the emergence of Islam in the seventh century A.D. Objects in the collection were created by people in the area that today comprises Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Yemen, and Central Asia. From the art of some of the world's first cities to that of great empires, the department's holdings illustrate the beauty and craftsmanship as well as the profound interconnections, cultural and religious diversity, and lasting legacies that characterize the ancient art of this vast region.

Metropolitan Museum of Art