Gudea, Prince of Lagash
Name/Title
Gudea, Prince of LagashEntry/Object ID
06NE13108Description
Statue depicting a man seated on a backless throne. Gudea, ruler of the city-state of Lagash, is depicted with his hands joined. His clean-shaven face is calm and smiling; large eyebrows arch above his eyes. He is wearing a broad brimmed cap with stylized wool or fur curls and an Akkadian draped/fringed robe inscribed with cuneiform. His muscular right arm uncovered. Damage is seen on the right brim of the cap, the nose, and the left upper arm. Plaster copy of stone original.Type of Sculpture
StatueArtwork Details
Medium
DioriteSubject Person
GudeaSubject Place
State/Province
LagashCounty
IraqRegion
MesopotamiaContext
Gudea was the ensi or ruler of the small, independent Sumerian city-state of Lagash from 2144 to 2124 BCE, holding both political and religious power. He built and restored many temples to gods of his kingdom. He also made many votive statues of himself from valuable imported stones, dedicated to these gods. More than 20 statues of Gudea have been found, often life-sized, depicting him as deeply pious. In this small statue, his hands are clasped in a conventional gesture of devotion and his feet are bare. The statue was inscribed with cuneiform in the Sumerian language, dedicating the statue to Gudea’s personal deity, the god Ningishzida, a deity of vegetation and of the underworld. Gudea was a trend-setter. His votive statues are the earliest evidence of Mesopotamian royalty wearing a broad brimmed hat. Later Neo-Sumerian and Babylonian kings, ruling far bigger and more powerful lands, depicted themselves wearing Gudea’s cap. Babylonian King Hammurabi wears Gudea’s cap almost four hundred years later, on Presumed Head of Hammurabi and on Code of Hammurabi. Replicas of these artifacts are also held by the Museum of Antiquities.Collection
Near EastMade/Created
Artist Information
Attribution
Neo-SumerianDate made
2120 BCE - 2110 BCETime Period
Bronze AgeEthnography
Culture/Tribe
Near Eastern - Sumerian