Fragment of an Ivory Plaque: Sphinx in Profile
Unknown · Neo-Assyrian period, eighth century BC
A sphinx in profile, nine centimetres high, shows the Phoenician manner: the human head is seen from the side, wearing an Egyptian wig, and the lion body carries a great wing that curves up behind. The relief is crisp, the surfaces smooth, and the fragment keeps enough of the creature to read its pose. Compare it with the frontal-faced Syrian sphinx displayed beside it, and you have the two great styles of Levantine ivory carving side by side in a single case.
The Phoenician cities of the coast, Tyre, Sidon and Byblos, and the Aramaean kingdoms inland such as Damascus and Hamath all produced ivory furniture in the ninth and eighth centuries before our era, and the Assyrian conquerors carried it home. The plaque was found in room fourteen of the Building of the Ivories at Arslan Tash, ancient Hadatu in northern Syria, during the 1928 excavations led by François Thureau-Dangin. It came to the Louvre in the partage of 1929.
Did You Know? Side by side with the frontal Syrian sphinx next to it, this profile sphinx shows the two rival styles of Levantine ivory carving in one glance.
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