A ‘QUEEN OF THE NIGHT’ MUSEUM COPY STONE CAST

A ‘QUEEN OF THE NIGHT’ MUSEUM COPY STONE CAST 1930s. The stone cast modeled in relief, on the front depicting a nude female figure with tapering feathered wings and talons, standing with her legs together, wearing an elaborate necklace and bracelets on each wrist, holding her hands up with a rod and ring in each. The figure supported by a pair of addorsed lions and flanked by a pair of standing owls. Condition: Good condition, traces of age and wear, one repair to the right owl’s face. Provenance: French private collection. Accompanied by an export certificate for cultural artifacts Dimensions: Height 72 cm (incl. base), 54 cm (excl. base) Mounted to an associated wooden base (1). This stone cast is modelled after the ‘Queen of the night’ relief in The British Museum. The Queen of the Night (also known as the `Burney Relief’) is a high relief terracotta plaque of baked clay (49.5 x 37 cm), depicting a naked winged woman flanked by owls and standing on the backs of two lions. It originated in southern Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) most probably in Babylonia, during the reign of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE) as it shares qualities in craftsmanship and technique with the famous diorite stele of Hammurabi’s laws and also with the piece known as `The god of Ur’ from that same period. The woman depicted is acknowledged to be a goddess as she wears the horned headdress of a deity and holds the sacred rod-and-ring symbol in her raised hands. Compare the ‘Queen of the night’ relief in The British Museum with the accession number 2003,0718.1.