The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Priest-King or Deity

Priest-King or Deity

c. 1600 BCE

Did You Know?

The left eye of the sculpture is the original bone inlay while the right eye is a modern restoration done after the piece was damaged.

Description

The Hittites migrated into Anatolia in the 3rd millennium BC and spoke an Indo-European language, a group that includes Greek, Latin, Persian, Sanskrit, English, and most modern European languages. They were the first ancient people to use iron for weapons. From about 1600–1200 BC their empire was at its peak, extending from central Anatolia to Syria, and south along the eastern Mediterranean. Their vast empire and interest in commerce enabled the Hittites to spread Mesopotamian ideas and culture throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. This large basalt sculpture is exceptionally rare in depicting a Hittite god or priest-king wearing a horned conical crown, false beard, and long robe. He holds a bowl in his right hand and once held something in his left, perhaps a staff or sword.
  • ?-1971
    Mrs. Maguerite Mallon, Sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1971-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Kozloff, Arielle P. "A Hittite Priest-King Figure." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 2 (1972): 56-62. pp. 56-62 www.jstor.org
    Gazette Des Beaux Arts vol. 79, no. 227 (February 1972). p. 66, fig. 227
    Spaeth, Eloise. American Art Museums: An Introduction to Looking. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. p. 339
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 2 archive.org
    Spycket, Agnès. La statuaire du Proche-Orient ancien. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981. p. 266, note 187
    Merhav, Rivka, "The Stele of the 'Serpent Goddess' from Ell beit Mirsim and the Plaque from Shechem Reconsidered," The Israel Museum Journal vol. 4 (Spring 1985). pp. 29-30, pl. V, 1A, aB
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 3 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Interpretations: Sixty-Five Works from the Cleveland Museum of Art. 1991. no. 1
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 68
  • Year in Review: 1971. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1971-February 6, 1972).
  • {{cite web|title=Priest-King or Deity|url=false|author=|year=c. 1600 BCE|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1971.45