Focus on Statue of Ashurbanipal (San Francisco) and discuss the Background.
In Assyrian sculpture, the famous colossal entrance way guardian figures of lamassu were often accompanied by a hero grasping a wriggling lion with one hand and typically a snake with the other, also colossal and in high relief; these are generally the only other types of high relief in Assyrian sculpture. They continue the Master of Animals tradition in Mesopotamian art, and may represent Enkidu, a central figure in the Ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. In the palace of Sargon II at Khorsabad, a group of at least seven lamassu and two such heroes with lions surrounded the entrance to the "throne room", "a concentration of figures which produced an overwhelming impression of power." The arrangement was repeated in Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh.
Gilgamesh Mesopotamia Assyria Assyrian Enkidu Epic of Gilgamesh Assyrian sculpture Sennacherib Khorsabad lamassu Nineveh Master of Animals Ancient Mesopotamia Sargon II