Glazed Brick with Bird Man

between 900 and 650 BCE

Assyrian, Mesopotamian

On View

Ancient Middle East Gallery, Level 1, West Wing

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About the Artwork

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Provenance

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

The walls of Assyrian palaces and temples were sometimes adorned with glazed terracotta decoration. A tradition for using glazed brick as wall adornment began in the ancient Near East during the thirteenth century BCE in southern Iran.
The Birdman, a magical creature, appeared first in the third millennium BCE as a mischievous being who was bound and brought before the gods. By the late neo-Assyrian period, his role is less clear: here he seems beneficent, his arms raised to support, in all probability, a winged sun-disk, the symbol of divinity.

Title Glazed Brick with Bird Man

Artwork Date between 900 and 650 BCE

Artist ----------

Life Dates ----------

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Mesopotamian

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Assyrian

Medium Glazed terracotta

Dimensions Overall: 13 1/2 × 13 1/2 × 3 3/4 inches (34.3 × 34.3 × 9.5 cm)

Classification Ceramics

Department Ancient Near Eastern Art

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Cleo and Lester Gruber Fund and the Hill Memorial Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 1989.68

Markings

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Provenance

(Sotheby's, New York, New York, USA);
1989-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

"Selected recent acquistions," Bulletin of the DIA 65, no. 4 (1990): p. 55, (ill).

Bulletin of the DIA 66, no. 2/3 (1990): title page, (ill).

Henshaw, Julia P., ed. A Visitors Guide: The Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1995, p. 97 (ill.)

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Assyrian, Mesopotamian, Glazed Brick with Bird Man, between 900 and 650 BCE, glazed terracotta. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Cleo and Lester Gruber Fund and the Hill Memorial Fund, 1989.68.