Fragment of a Perforated Relief: Dignitaries and Musicians
Unknown · Early Dynastic period, third millennium BC
A small square of pale limestone, less than thirteen centimetres on each side, carries the remains of a carved scene of dignitaries and musicians. Look closely at the low relief: figures in the Sumerian manner, with large eyes and rounded skulls, are gathered as if at a banquet, and at least one of them holds an instrument. The surface is worn, so let your eye follow the outlines of the bodies rather than searching for detail. Fragments like this once belonged to larger plaques pierced by a central hole, which is why the museum calls it a perforated relief.
Perforated plaques were a speciality of Sumerian city temples in the third millennium BC. They were fixed to a wall with a peg passed through the central hole, and their banquet scenes, with seated drinkers, servants and musicians, celebrated the feasts that marked a temple foundation or a royal ceremony. The Louvre bought this fragment in nineteen thirty-one, and the museum record gives neither a findspot nor a precise date, so its context is known only from its style. Compare it with the complete plaques in the same room to imagine the missing parts of the scene.
Did You Know? The central hole in plaques of this type was for a peg that fixed them to a temple wall, which is why even a fragment betrays the shape of the whole.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.