28 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Assyrian Art at Getty Villa

The Getty Villa in Malibu, California’s arts complex is showcasing superbly-restored gypsum reliefs from the Assyrian Empire’s palaces for its special exhibition, “Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq.”

The notion of the empire began to emerge during the beginning of the final millennium before the Common Era, in the ninth century B.C. For the following 200 years, Assyrians claimed territory spanning the Middle East and Central Asia, from the Persian Gulf to the present-day Turkish province of Mersin, comprising a large swath of eastern Anatolia and winding down through the Levant and most of the Nile, which spanned Egypt.

Despite its then-unrivaled military and administrative dominance over such large and diverse areas and peoples, the material culture of its palace artisans survives as the glittering legacy of its strong civilization, with visual themes that appear to be more Babylonian than Hittite.

The Getty Villa exhibition “Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq” attests to the power of physical might celebrated via a constant stream of conflicts and festivals that predated the classical notions of tragedy and comedy in mimetic works of earthly representation.

Protective Spirits
“Protective Spirits,” Assyrian, 645-640 B.C.

Mostly on loan from the British Museum in London, a special curator of ancient Assyrian sculpture is temporarily exhibited in an opulent Italian mansion complex overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The works date from the ninth to eighth centuries B.C. and are accompanied by a collection of 19th-century expedition drawings by English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard sourced from the Getty Research Institute.

When studying the monuments of Nineveh firsthand between 1849 and 1853, Layard understood how to decipher cuneiform and used his talents as a draughtsman and art historian.

Assyrian kings from the ninth to seventh centuries BC adorned their palaces with masterful relief sculptures that represent a high point of Mesopotamian art, both in terms of artistic quality and sophistication, as well as vivid depictions of warfare, rituals, mythology, hunting, and other aspects of Assyrian court life.

The reliefs in this exhibition are from the palaces of Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) and Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 BC) at Kalhu, Sargon II (722–705 BC) at Dur-Sharrukin, and Ashurbanipal (668–627 BC) at Nineveh. Together, these works, which include some of Assyrian art’s classics, give a representative overview of the major topics, styles, and creative achievements of Assyrian art.

The significance of these historic artifacts has grown because ISIS recently destroyed many of the reliefs that survived in Iraq.

The special exhibition can be visited until September 5, 2022.

Related Articles

The first Dutch Neanderthal’s ‘Krijn’ face was reconstructed

7 September 2021

7 September 2021

World-renowned “paleo-artists” Kennis brothers have reconstructed the face of the first Neanderthal in the Netherlands. After more than 50,000 years,...

A New Picene Prince Tomb Dating to the 7th Century BC with Two Chariots Discovered in Corinaldo, Italy

29 July 2024

29 July 2024

Following the discovery of the so-called ‘Prince of Corinaldo’ in 2018, archaeologists from the University of Bologna have discovered a...

Archaeologists Find 11 Sealed Middle Kingdom Burials Full of Jewelry in Luxor, Egypt

4 November 2024

4 November 2024

The South Asasif Conservation Project, an Egyptian-American mission working under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, has...

Scientists Use Artificial İntelligence to Study Ancient Australian Rock Art

1 April 2021

1 April 2021

Rock art is the oldest surviving human art form. Throughout Australia, petroglyphs are part of the life and customs of...

New study: Humans engaged in large-scale warfare in Europe 5,000 years ago ‘1,000 years earlier than previously thought’

3 November 2023

3 November 2023

Hundreds of human remains unearthed from a burial site point to a  warfare between Stone Age people long before the...

Nearly intact 1,800-year-old bouquets of flowers found in Teotihuacan

14 August 2021

14 August 2021

In the ruined city of Teotihuacan, Mexico, at a depth of 18 meters, inside the tunnel under the pyramid of...

Famous Egyptologist Zahi Hawass Wants to See Hieroglyphs as an İntegral Part of The Curriculum

23 February 2021

23 February 2021

The Egyptian council of ministers is discussing the introduction of archaeological and tourist materials in the education curriculum to help...

Israeli researchers have found evidence of cooking fish 780,000 years ago at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov

14 November 2022

14 November 2022

Hominins living at Gesher Benot Ya’akov 780,000 years ago liked their fish to be well cooked, Israeli researchers revealed Monday,...

Archaeologists deciphered the Sabaean inscription on a clay jar finds link between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

3 April 2023

3 April 2023

Archaeologists deciphered a partially preserved inscription that was found on the neck of a large jar dated back to the...

Ancient Hawaiian Petroglyphs Reappear on Oahu’s Shoreline After Years Beneath the Sand

25 July 2025

25 July 2025

A remarkable piece of Hawaii’s cultural legacy has resurfaced this month, as ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs were once again exposed along...

A farmer discovered artifacts of the Unetice culture in his field

19 August 2021

19 August 2021

A farmer in Sulęcin county in Poland’s Lubusz province discovered a rare treasure while trying to clear stones from his...

Earliest Known Stone Mold for Coin Production in Roman Hispania Unearthed

27 March 2025

27 March 2025

Researchers from the University of Jaén have made a groundbreaking discovery at the archaeological site of Obulco, modern-day Porcuna, revealing...

Artifacts for sale offered at a Dutch auction house returned to Peru

9 July 2021

9 July 2021

The Dutch government announced in a press release today that the artifacts that were put up for sale at an...

Urartian King Argishti’s shield reveals the name of an unknown country

30 January 2023

30 January 2023

The inscription on a bronze shield purchased by the Rezan Has Museum revealed the name of an unknown country. It...

45,000 years ago, Neanderthals in the Swabian Jura used complex tool-making techniques

13 September 2021

13 September 2021

Findings that will change our perception of Neanderthals’ sophistication A team from the University of Tübingen have proved that Middle...