Gesture and Alterity in the Art of Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria

• Autores: Megan Cifarelli
• Localización: Art bulletin, ISSN 0004-3079, Vol. 80, Nº 2, 1998, págs. 210-228
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The narrative scenes carved in low relief on the massive stone slabs that decorated the palaces of first-millennium B.C.E. Assyrian kings in northern Mesopotamia participated in the construction of an Assyrian cultural ideology that was based in part on a negative view of cultural difference. This essay suggests that images of non-Assyrian people--created for an audience that was largely Assyrian, male, and elite--use a visual language that identified intercultural difference with intracultural transgression. Non-Assyrians were depicted with postures and gestures that carried negative connotations; moreover, these representations positively reinforced Assyrian identity and power structures.