The first thing I notice about the Stele of Naram-Sin is the detail. I'm a very detail-oriented sort of person, so I notice the obscure things very quickly, namely the tree. It's surprisingly delicate compared to the rest of the piece, forming an interesting contrast. It also gives us an idea of where this battle happened, and that it was probably a real battle, since the trees are identifiable (as stated in the Stokstad textbook). The tree might seem more delicate in the picture, since it is so scaled down. The stele must be stunning in person, at six and a half feet tall. It stands as a formidable tribute to the Akkadian king's reign.
Even though the rules we know for art could not have been in place, we can tell that the person in charge of sculpting this piece had a good eye. The repetition of the king's soldiers toward the bottom of the stele is visually pleasing, as well as a means of conveying the perhaps idealized order and fearlessness of the Akkadian army. Scale and placement are big factors in the stele as well. The king is much larger than all the rest of the figures, and he is placed at the very top of the crowd, emphasizing his importance and authority. He is also given a sign of divinity: the horns on his head, which were a sign of the gods to that culture. This whole piece serves as a representation of Naram-sin's authority, both in war and the religion of the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment