I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM
Statue of Ashurnasirpal II
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Assyrian kings are usually seen in low relief. This figure stands free. Found at Kalhu in the mid-nineteenth century, it remains a rare royal statue to survive in the round.
At a glance
- Date
- 9th century BC
- Material
- Magnesite
- Dimensions
- 113 × 32 × 15 cm (6 in)
- Culture
- Assyrian Empire
- Museum number
- ME 118871
Look closer
Worked in the round
Most surviving Assyrian palace sculpture is relief: figures remain tied to a stone slab and to a wall. This statue is carved free of any back panel. It can be walked around. That is uncommon among royal images from the Assyrian Empire, and it gives the king a physical presence that wall narrative cannot.
A compact body of stone
The figure measures 113 centimetres (3 ft 8 in) in height, 32 centimetres (1 ft 1 in) in width and 15 centimetres (6 in) in depth. It is not a colossal guardian for a gateway. The modest scale points toward a different kind of setting and a different kind of encounter from the vast panels that dominate the Assyrian record.
Magnesite and its surface
The sculpture is cut from magnesite. Since its recovery in the mid-nineteenth century it has been noted for craftsmanship of a high order and for a condition long described as flawless. The pale stone still carries a clear, finished surface, which is part of why the work rewards slow looking.
The story
The Statue of Ashurnasirpal II is a magnesite sculpture of the ninth century BC, made within the Assyrian Empire. It stands 113 centimetres (3 ft 8 in) high, 32 centimetres (1 ft 1 in) wide and 15 centimetres (6 in) deep. Its British Museum inventory number is ME 118871.
Assyrian royal art survives above all as carved wall slabs and as figures fixed to architecture. A free-standing statue of a king is a different kind of object. This one is a rare example of Assyrian sculpture worked fully in the round. It was found in the mid-nineteenth century at the ancient site of Kalhu, now known as Nimrud, by the archaeologist Austen Henry Layard, and has been part of the British Museum's collection since 1851.
The figure has long been admired for the high quality of its craftsmanship and for its flawless condition. No sculptor's name is attached to the work in the sources used here. What remains is the finished product of a workshop under Ashurnasirpal II, whose reign is conventionally dated from 883 to 859 BC.
Because so much of the surviving Assyrian image of kingship is bound to walls, a statue that can be walked around changes the encounter. The king is not a passage in a longer relief sequence. He is a single body in space. That difference is modest in physical scale — little more than a metre high — yet it is enough to make the piece stand apart from the relief tradition that dominates the record.
Why it mattered then
In the ninth century BC a freestanding royal statue was already an uncommon way to show an Assyrian king. Most of the stone effort we can still see went into wall reliefs and architectural figures. This magnesite statue offered something else: the ruler as a body occupying real space at Kalhu. Its careful finish and compact proportions were part of how that presence was made persuasive to anyone who stood before it.
Why it matters now
It still matters because freestanding Assyrian royal sculpture is scarce. The piece lets us judge carving in three dimensions rather than only in relief, and it ties that judgment to a named reign and a known site. Held in the British Museum since 1851, and still in the condition that first drew admiration, it remains a primary witness to how Ashurnasirpal II could be shown when the sculptor was free of the wall.
The surprising detail
Assyrian sculptors poured most of their surviving effort into walls and gateways. Full statues of kings are rare. That this magnesite figure survived in such sound condition, and was recovered by Austen Henry Layard in the mid-nineteenth century, is why a form that was already uncommon can still be studied at close range.
What is disputed
No named sculptor is attached to the work. The dating to 883–859 BC follows the conventional span of Ashurnasirpal II's reign. The precise find-spot within Kalhu is not fixed in the summary sources used here.
How it got here
The statue was found in the mid-nineteenth century at Kalhu (Nimrud) by Austen Henry Layard and has been part of the British Museum's collection since 1851.
Remember this
A rare Assyrian royal statue in the round: magnesite, ninth century BC, found at Kalhu by Layard, in the British Museum since 1851.
Test yourself
Assyrian palaces are filled with carved wall reliefs of the king. Why does a free-standing statue of Ashurnasirpal II change what we can say about Assyrian royal image-making?
Because relief ties the king to a wall and to a continuous narrative programme, while sculpture in the round makes him a body in space, approachable from every side. The survival of even one well-preserved example shows that Assyrian workshops could work both ways, and that the court sometimes wanted the king present as a freestanding figure, not only as a scene on stone cladding.
Go deeper
Image: Public domain. Licence: Public domain. Source.