The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 29, 2025

Three large rock panels vertically combine to display a relief of a winged figure facing our left. The figure's right arm is bent and raised with their palm facing us and their left arm is straight down, slightly forward, and holding a branch with flowers. The figure is wearing a long robe and text is inscribed all across the middle panel.

Saluting Protective Spirit

883–859 BCE
(911–609 BCE), Iraq, Nimrud, Northwest Palace, reign of Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BCE)
gypsum
Overall: 229.9 x 137 cm (90 1/2 x 53 15/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1943.246
Location: 102A Ancient Near East

Did You Know?

The details of his garments are painstakingly rendered; he wears a long fringed cloak with tassels over a shorter kilt and an under tunic.

Description

Striding forward with muscular arms and legs, this winged deity offers a gesture of salutation along with symbols of agricultural bounty. Inscribed with an account of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II's military conquests and victories, this relief once stood alongside hundreds of similar ones that decorated the palace at Nimrud.
  • 1847
    Excavated by Austen Henry Layard at the palace of Ashur-nasirapal II in Calah (Nimrud)
    1847-1852/1856?
    Gift of Dr. Henry John Lobdell (Class of 1849), to Amherst College
    1885-1942
    Amherst College, sold in even exchange for lot of objects to Joseph Brummer Gallery
    1942-1943
    (Joseph Brummer Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1943-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), no. P427317: Nimrud NW Palace Relief Slab S-06. cdli.ucla.edu
    Englund, Klaudia."Room S", The Northwest Palace at Nimrud. Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI). S-6 cdli.ucla.edu
    Layard, Austen Henry. The Monuments of Nineveh: From Drawings Made on the Spot. London: J. Murray, 1849. Plate 37 of vol. 1, Map: No. 9 Room S
    Malcolm, Vaughn. The International Studio (Feb. 1927)
    Worcester Art Museum Bulletin (Oct. 1930)
    Plough, Harold. "The Natural History of the Assyrian Bas-Reliefs." Amherst Graduate Quarterly (May 1934). pp. 195-201
    Hollis, Howard. "An Assyrian Relief of a Winged Deity." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 30, no. 7 (1943): 108-13. www.jstor.org
    Art Quarterly VI (Summer 1943). pp. 224-227
    The Brummer Gallery Records. Cloisters (Museum), n.d. N5334 libmma.contentdm.oclc.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 667 archive.org
    "Treasures from Cleveland," Apollo 78 (December 1963). p. 441
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 10 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 10 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 3 archive.org
    Tortora, Phyllis G., and Keith Eubank. A Survey of Historic Costume. New York: Fairchild Publications, 1989. p. 18, fig. 2.5
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 6 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterpieces from East and West. New York, NY: Rizzoli International, 1992. p. 17
    Tortora, Phyllis G., and Keith Eubank. A Survey of Historic Costume: A History of Western Dress. New York: Fairchild Publications, 1994. p. 10, fig. 2.5
    May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. No. 2, pp. 6-7
    Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. pp. 31-31
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 68-69
    Biro, Yaëlle, Christine E. Brennan, and Christel H. Force. The Brummer Galleries, Paris and New York: Defining Taste from Antiquities to the Avant-Garde. Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2023. Mentioned: p. 485; reproduced: p. 487, fig. c..3
  • {{cite web|title=Saluting Protective Spirit|url=false|author=|year=883–859 BCE|access-date=29 April 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1943.246