30 Millennia of Sculpture. Patrick Bade

Relief Depicting a Combat, early 2nd millennium BCE. Ancient Near East, Terracotta, 8 × 13.8 cm. Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin.

      77. Anonymous, Code of Hammurabi, King of Babylon, 1792–1750 BCE. Ancient Near East, Susa (Iran). Basalt, 225 × 65 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

      The sixth king of Babylon, Hammurabi, was the first to ascertain the hegemony of the city over the whole of Mesopotamia and to impose a real unity of language and law within his kingdom. Hammurabi’s Code is inscribed in the Akkadian language and is more a compendium of case law than a statement of legal texts, destined to govern his people according to the same rules of conduct and accountability for everyone. Nearly three-quarters of the work are inscribed on stone tablets; this text is one of the oldest written laws and the most comprehensive one of antiquity. The stele, first placed in the temple of Sippar before being moved to Susa in the late 2nd millennium BCE, has been found in several versions located throughout the kingdom. Thus, the code was made available and became visible to all, responding to a principle of law known and still in effect: ‘Nobody is supposed to ignore the law.’ Emblematic of the Mesopotamian civilisation, the text begins with an introduction explaining the achievements and qualities of the king, followed by court decisions. This is an exceptional source of information about this culture, in areas as diverse as family, religion, military and the economy. An epilogue, dedicated to the glory of Hammurabi, completes the text. At the top of the stele, a bas-relief shows the standing king receiving the investiture of Shamash, the Mesopotamian god of the sun, thus legitimising the rules imposed by the king.

      78. Anonymous, Bas-relief of an Armed Warrior God, first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Ancient Near East. Plate moulded terracotta, 11.5 × 5.5 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

      79. Anonymous, Mountain God Feeding Two Goats, 15th century BCE. Ancient Near East. Limestone, height: 122 cm. Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin.

      80. Anonymous, The Sculptor Bak and his Wife Taheri, Reign of Akhenaten, Dynasty XVIII, 1379–1362 BCE. Ancient Egyptian. Quartzite, height: 67 cm. Ägyptische Museum, Berlin.

      81. Anonymous, Stele of Baal with a Bolt of Lightning, 15th-13th century BCE. Ancient Near East, Ras Shamra. Limestone, 142 × 50 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

      This type of monument was placed outside the temples to honour the gods and was the main means of expression that developed in the Bronze Age. Curved at the top, slightly flared at the base, this sculpture represents Baal, the Phoenician god of the storm. On the right, a little person is dominated and protected by the god. No doubt, he is the king of Ugarit, now Ras Shamra city, where the work was discovered. While some features of this bas-relief refer to Egyptian sculpture, including the two-dimensional representation of the persons, the symbolism of the work is nevertheless characteristic of the Levant. In a move like the figures of fighting gods, like Zeus or Jupiter, Baal brandished his club and planted a stick into the ground, which ends in dense foliage illustrating the benefits of the rain, and so the storm, to nature. Baal is thus depicted as the guarantor of both plant and human life. Of the nineteen steles discovered to date, this one, known as Baal with a Bolt of Lightning, is the largest, in both size and iconographic quality.

      82. Anonymous, A Block Statue of Senenmut and Princess Neferure, Dynasty XVIII, 1570–1320 BCE. Ancient Egyptian, Karnak cachette (Egypt). Granite Gray, height: 130 cm. Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, Cairo.

      83. Anonymous, Statue of King Idrima, 16th century BCE. Ancient Near East, Tell Atchana (Turkey). Limestone and basalt, height: 104.2 cm. The British Museum, London.

      84. Anonymous, Statuette of a Seated God, around 1600 BCE. Ancient Near East, Qatna (Syria). Bronze, height: 18.1 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

      85. Anonymous, Girl With a Vase, Dynasty XVIII, 1570–1320 BCE. Ancient Egyptian, Tomb of Merneptah, Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Western Thebes (Egypt). Boxwood, gold and ivory painted, height: 13.3 cm. Oriental Museum, University of Durham.

      86. Anonymous, Princess Ahhotep, Dynasty XVII, 1650–1580 BCE. Ancient Egyptian. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

      87. Anonymous, Statuette of Nefertiti, Dynasty XVIII, 1570–1320 BCE. Ancient Egyptian, Tell el-Amarna (Egypt). Limestone, height: 40 cm. Ägyptische Museum, Berlin.

      88. Anonymous, Miniature Coffin for the Viscera of Tutankhamun, Dynasty XVIII, 1570–1320 BCE. Ancient Egyptian, Valley of the Kings (Egypt). Gold, carnelian, and glass paste, height: 39 cm. Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, Cairo.

      89. Anonymous, Colossal Head of Amenhotep III, Dynasty XVIII, 1570–1320 BCE. Ancient Egyptian, el-Kom Heitan, Western Thebes (Egypt). Brown quartzite, 117 × 81 × 66 cm. The British Museum, London.

      90. Anonymous, Akhenaten with the Queen or a Princess, Dynasty XVIII, 1570–1320 BCE. Ancient Egyptian. Limestone, height: 39.5 cm. Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, Cairo.

      91. Thutmose, Bust of Nefertiti, Dynasty XVIII, 1570–1320 BCE. Ancient Egyptian, Tell el-Amarna (Egypt). Limestone and gypsum, height: 48 cm. Ägyptische Museum, Berlin.

      Nefertiti is one of the best-known Egyptian queens in the world, thanks to the discovery in 1912 of the bust sculpted by Thutmose in the 2nd millennium BCE. Unearthed at Tell el-Amarna in the workshop that is believed to have belonged to the official sculptor of Akhenaten, of whom Nefertiti was the great royal wife, the realistic bust impresses by the beauty of the model. The fineness of the representation, the bright colours and delicate facial features make this royal sculpture one of the masterpieces of ancient Egypt. During her lifetime, the queen played a major political role next to her husband and was famous for her outstanding beauty, Nefertiti’s name means also, in Egyptian, ‘the beautiful woman has come’. Next to the Pharaoh, Nefertiti exerts a significant influence on the cultural and religious changes, concerning the abolition of the cult of Amon and the advent of Aton, initiated by her husband. Faithful to the sun god, even after the death of Akhenaton, Nefertiti died at the age of 35 years after having withdrawn, probably for personal reasons, from public life. Like her uncertain origins, her tomb is one of the great mysteries of Egyptology. It is likely that when she died, her body was buried beside the one of Akhenaton at Tell el-Amarna. However, no remains have yet been found. No doubt, the bodies were desecrated like numerous remains of the Amarna period, or transferred to Thebes when the city of the heretical pharaoh was abandoned.

      92. Anonymous, Perforated Relief, mid-2nd millennium BCE. Ancient Near East, Temple of Ninhursag, Susa (Iran). Alabaster, 14 × 13 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

      93. Anonymous, King Amenhotep IV Akhenaton, Reign of Akhenaten, Dynasty XVIII, 1379–1362 BCE. Ancient Egyptian, pillar fragment of a building built at the east of Karnak (Egypt). Painted sandstone, 137 × 88 × 60 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

      94. Anonymous, Akhenaton, 1353–1335 BCE. Ancient Egyptian, Karnak (Egypt). Sandstone, height: 396 cm. Museum