Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
King Ashur-nasir-pal II (883–859 B.C.E.) was the first Assyrian king to decorate his palace with carved stone reliefs. The palace was built at a site called “Kalhu” (in modern Nimrud, slightly north of Baghdad, Iraq). The decorations of this vast palace were meant to overwhelm the ancient visitor with the king’s power and to reveal the supernatural world where the king existed. The twelve reliefs on view at the Brooklyn Museum were carved with majestic images of kings, divinities, sacred trees, and magical beings called apkallu. The Assyrians believed that apkallu, portrayed as winged creatures with either human- or eagle-heads, survived the primordial flood to serve the king.
Funding for the conservation of six of these reliefs was generously provided through a grant from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project. Thanks to this grant, the Brooklyn Museum team completed documentation, cleaning, structural treatment, and remounting of the reliefs, reinstalling them paired as they would have been in their original architectural setting. We are deeply grateful for the partnership and generosity of Bank of America.
brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/assyrian_reliefs
King Ashur-nasir-pal II (883–859 B.C.E.) was the first Assyrian king to decorate his palace with carved stone reliefs. The palace was built at a site called “Kalhu” (in modern Nimrud, slightly north of Baghdad, Iraq). The decorations of this vast palace were meant to overwhelm the ancient visitor with the king’s power and to reveal the supernatural world where the king existed. The twelve reliefs on view at the Brooklyn Museum were carved with majestic images of kings, divinities, sacred trees, and magical beings called apkallu. The Assyrians believed that apkallu, portrayed as winged creatures with either human- or eagle-heads, survived the primordial flood to serve the king.
Funding for the conservation of six of these reliefs was generously provided through a grant from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project. Thanks to this grant, the Brooklyn Museum team completed documentation, cleaning, structural treatment, and remounting of the reliefs, reinstalling them paired as they would have been in their original architectural setting. We are deeply grateful for the partnership and generosity of Bank of America.
brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/assyrian_reliefs
