Striding figure with ibex horns, a raptor skin draped around the shoulders, and upturned boots

Striding figure with ibex horns, a raptor skin draped around the shoulders, and upturned boots

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This solid-cast sculpture is one of a pair of nearly identical images of a hero or a demon wearing the upturned boots associated with highland regions, his power enhanced by the mighty horns of the ibex on his head and the body and wings of a bird of prey draped around his shoulders. It was created at the time the first cities emerged in ancient Sumer. A new world view conceived of human figures in realistic terms, through accurate proportions and highly modeled forms with distinctive features. The blending of human and animal forms to visualize the supernatural world and perhaps to express shamanistic beliefs, however, is more characteristic of the contemporary arts of Proto-Elamite Iran, where a remarkable tradition of metalworking developed during this period.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Striding figure with ibex horns, a raptor skin draped around the shoulders, and upturned bootsStriding figure with ibex horns, a raptor skin draped around the shoulders, and upturned bootsStriding figure with ibex horns, a raptor skin draped around the shoulders, and upturned bootsStriding figure with ibex horns, a raptor skin draped around the shoulders, and upturned bootsStriding figure with ibex horns, a raptor skin draped around the shoulders, and upturned boots

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.