Fragment of an Ivory Plaque: The Birth of Horus
Unknown · Neo-Assyrian period, eighth century BC
A child god sits on a lotus flower between two winged genies who wear the Egyptian double crown and spread their wings around him. The plaque is a square of about eight centimetres, and gold leaf still gleams on the wings; purple traces on the wings and on the plants mark more lost gilding. The scene is the birth of Horus, the Egyptian sun child who rises from the lotus at the beginning of the world. The figures are drawn in the crisp Egyptianising style of the Phoenician workshops, with clear outlines and shallow relief.
Horus on the lotus was among the favourite motifs of Phoenician ivory carvers, who supplied furniture to the palaces of Syria and, through tribute and booty, to the Assyrian kings. This plaque was found near the north wall of room fourteen in the Building of the Ivories at Arslan Tash, ancient Hadatu in northern Syria, in the 1928 excavations led by François Thureau-Dangin, and it came to the Louvre in the partage of 1929. A second version of the same scene is displayed beside it.
Did You Know? The gold leaf on the wings has survived almost three thousand years, a rare case of ivory furniture keeping its original gilding.
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