Bust of a Praying Figure
Unknown · Early Dynastic III B period, c. 2500-2340 BC
The head and chest of a man survive from a small statue of a worshipper. His skull is shaved, his torso is bare, and his hands are clasped together in front of him in the gesture of prayer that every statue in this room shares. The eyes are inlaid with mother-of-pearl set in bitumen, and though the dark pupils are lost, the pale shell still gives him an alert, attentive look. The eyebrows were hollowed out to take inlays too. The left elbow is broken and the piece has been reassembled from fragments, yet the softness of the modelling around the cheeks and mouth comes through.
He was found in 1936 in the temple of Ishtar at Mari, at the foot of a staircase near the door to one of the courtyards, during André Parrot's excavations. Statues like this were commissioned by worshippers and placed in the sanctuary so that they could pray to the goddess without end, a substitute for the person's own presence. The larger examples in this room carry the names of their owners; this one does not, so he remains anonymous. It reached the Louvre in the partage of finds from the 1936 season.
Did You Know? A statue like this was a stand-in that kept praying for its owner day and night, long after he had gone home.
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