The piece from the chapter that stood out to me the most and that I chose to talk about was the guardian figures at the gate of the Citadel of Sargon II, on page 42 of our text. The photo of the statues was taken during the excavation of Citadel, in present day Iraq.
My first reaction to this piece is that this symbolized power of a great empire and security to its people. I believe this place was powerful because the carvings on the guardians of the gate are so particular in there perfection and enormity (forty feet high). Horses were a sign of battle and strength and the guardians resemble horses and man. They also are showing that along with their power they are rich because the dressings on the guardians look like they are made of expensive clothing material, with many accessories and jewels; like hats, earrings, necklaces, and jewels dangling on the legs of both the man and horse. Not everyone of this time could afford this nice of clothing so to use them on the guardians is smart to send the message of wealth, which could lead to fear of the power behind the walls.
The composition of these statues is that so it makes a grand entrance into the gates of Citadel. It is made with great walls and a maze like entrance to end up at the destination of the place that they are guarding. The guardians are to the right and the left of the entrance and have walls surrounding them that are even greater in size than the enormous statues.
The medium of the piece looks like rock or a form of cement. Obviously the element that they used was strong enough to last and hold up to today. And to be able to build and fund enough material and workers to create this massive structure shows the wealth of the people and kingdom.
The style that makes this art really unique is that the guardians are half men and half horse. This could have been done because they were intending to portray that they are of great strength compared to average men. The guardians have the body of a horse with the hooves and body structure, and the head of a man connected to the horse’s neck. The guardians are bulky and thick looking of strong muscle, which was not always true of men in the past because they were so hard working and did not have that much to eat so they would have been more slender. The faces and heads of the guardians are dressed with fancy head dresses, symbolizing great wealth to be able to afford such fancy items. And great wealth comes from great power, so overall these statues get the message of power off to any intruders.
The color of the statues and entrance is charcoal grey and black shades. This coloring was most likely just done because it is the color of the material they used. The greyish color seems to be common among many structures built in the past due to the materials they had used.
The scale of this piece is massive, with forty feet high walls. The height also emphasizes on the power of this place because they have the wealth and man power to create such a piece. With walls of this great of height a place is secure and strong.
The texture of the piece looks rough like our concrete today would be if we just poured it and did not smooth it out. But the piece looks very well done and like a lot of thought and care went into the making of the piece.
Men are clearly not of the magnitude of the half men half horse figures of these statues, so the proportion is off compared to normal perspectives. But the proportion of the guardian’s heads is a whole lot larger than compared to the neck and body of the figure. The heads being larger is most likely to make the man part of the statue stand out and overpower the horse part, so this way people attempting to break or enter through the walls know that this place holds men of great power and wealth so they are not someone to be reckoned with.
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