Drawing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art -

2016-05-19 Apkallu, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

 So the school's commencement ceremony is today, and I decided to spend the morning drawing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I wanted to do a couple copies of the relief sculptures in the Ancient Near Eastern Art section.

This is an Eagle-Headed Apkallu. I just spent a few minutes on wikipedia looking up information about them. They seem to be analogous to angels or demigods.

My interest in the relief was completely Aethetic. Despite the stylization of the figure: the very strong definition of the muscles and the rigid pose of the figure. There is a lot of movement and life in the figure.  Personally I think it has a lot to do with the repeated shapes and the organic lines that create the figure.  Spending the a few hours working on this has given me a lot of respect for the form creation.

There were also and number of details that just fascinated me.  The Apkallu has wristbands with what looks like wristwatches on them. The compass/sundial pattern mirrors some of the other patterns found throughout the relief.

I had to bolt out of the museum to get to the commencement ceremony for the class of 2016. It was a good trip to the MET.