Sumerian Shakespeare
An unknown portrait of Gudea?
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 could also be 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.
It is also the same on the Christie's statue:
The nose of this statue has a slightly different shape than the two statues shown above.
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 owner of a major auction house in Europe corresponded with me regarding this statue. He said he was able to verify the Christie’s provenance of the statue, but not the Rivers provenance. He therefore withdrew it from the auction.
I assumed that Christie’s had done its due diligence in verifying the full provenance of the statue. However, if there is any question about the provenance, then the statue will have to be examined forensically to prove its authenticity.
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.
If the statue is authentic, hopefully it will end up in a museum where people can be
reminded of a truly great king, one of the first great kings in world history
March 10, 2021
