This is a picture of two statues of Gudea, the
great Sumerian king.
Both statues are allegedly from the
collection of the famous archaeologist, Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt
Rivers (1827 – 1900), better known as Pitt Rivers. He is sometimes called “the founding father of British archaeology.” The statues were part of an estate sale. They were sold by Christie’s auction house. This picture
is from the Christie’s catalog of 1993.
Readers of this website will
instantly recognize the alabaster statue on the right. It is currently in the
collection of the Barakat Gallery (see The Face of Gudea).
The statue on the left is carved
from black diorite stone. I refer to it as an “unknown” portrait of Gudea because it
was not in a museum and therefore it was not accessible to the general public.
For Identification purposes, I call it the Christie's Gudea.
In December 2020, Per Leusch sent
me an email with the picture that is shown above. He informed me that the diorite statue was privately owned by his uncle, Dr. Rudolf Leusch, in
south Germany. It was acquired in the Christie’s auction of 1993.
Since both statues were offered
for sale, Dr, Leusch had to decide on which one to buy. He knew that diorite is a very
hard stone and it is difficult to carve, unlike soft alabaster which is easily sculpted.
For this reason, he logically assumed that the diorite statue was more
valuable. He also preferred the kindly expression on the face of the
statue. After careful deliberation, he chose the diorite statue of Gudea.
At the time it made perfect sense,
but in hindsight it was a huge mistake.
That’s because the alabaster
statue of Gudea is the first realistic, recognizable portrait of any human
being in history. As such, it is priceless (and historically important) beyond
all measure.
Nonetheless, the diorite statue is
also very valuable, both in terms of price and historic importance. The same is
true for any statue of Gudea.
There are 27 known statues of
Gudea. Two of them do not depict Gudea with reasonable certainty. Many of
the statues are headless because they were vandalized by looters when Sumer was
conquered in 2004 BC, about a hundred years after the death of Gudea. See a
brief history of Gudea.
This is the first time that photographs of the statue have been made available to the general public.
Gudea wears a shepherd’s hat, the
crown of a Sumerian king. Gudea was the sipad zid, the true shepherd,
the guardian and protector of his flock, the people.
This is a “generic” portrait of
Gudea, like all the other statues (except for the realistic Barakat Gudea). It
shows his basic facial features without attempting to be an exact portrait. It
is very similar to the statue of Gudea in the Met Museum.
Gudea in the Met.
This generic statue, like most of
the others, was created earlier in the reign of Gudea, before he started
commissioning statues that were more realistic; for example, the statues of his
sons Ur-Ningirsu and Lugal-agrigzi, and his daughter, the
Sumerian Princess.
The lips on this statue are very
full, more so than the other statues. In real life, Gudea had a thin upper lip,
as seen on the Barakat Gudea.
Gudea’s most noticeable feature is
his chin. It is very strong and square when viewed from the front, but it is
slightly recessive when viewed from the side. It appears this way on most of
his statues, even the generic ones.
Height = 38 cm (15 inches). This is
a life-size statute.
When I first saw this statue of
Gudea, I was concerned that it might be a modern forgery because a large
portion of the upper torso had remained intact. On all the other statues of Gudea
that were vandalized by looters, the head broke off at the neckline because this
is the thinnest part of the statue. The statues were thus “decapitated” when
they were struck by a sword or a mace (see the headless statues of Gudea). I thought it was unlikely that the statue broke off at the upper chest which the thickest part of the statue.
Then
I realized that the remains of the statue are composed of two parts, the head and the upper torso, which have been glued together. The glue line around the neck can be seen on
the profile pictures that are shown above.
Another concern is the back of the statue. I'm not sure how it could break off cleanly on a single plane across three different thicknesses of the statute (head, neck, and shoulders). It sets up the possibility that the statue is a modern forgery that was carved from a smaller block of diorite and it never included the entire statue.
The statue will need to be examined forensically to verify it its authenticity. Assuming for now that it is genuine...
Gudea was a king that even modern
people can relate to.
He was not a warrior-king like Ur-Namma, Eannatum, and
many other Sumerian kings. During his twenty-year reign, he recorded only one
military campaign, when it seemed that everyone else in the region was
engaged in constant warfare. Gudea loved peace, but he was also a pragmatic
realist who could guide his people through perilous times. Gudea gave his people twenty years of peace and prosperity and the arts blossomed during his reign.
With this statue, Gudea has reappeared
after more than 4,000 years. Hopefully the statue will end up in a museum where
people can be reminded of a truly great king, one of the first in world
history.
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