The Royal Acquaintances Memi and Sabu and the Statue of Gudea: differences and similarities
Introduction
According to Barton (n.d.) “for thousands of years sculpture has filled many roles in human life” and “from its beginnings until the present, sculpture has been largely monumental.”. Whether sculptures were created in Egypt’s Old Kingdom where the “artistic effort was centered on preserving life after death” (Roehrig, 2000), or in the Mesopotamia Neo-Sumerian period where their art “demonstrated devotion to the gods and celebrated the power of kings.” (Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004), they all share the main function of expressing a civilization’s history, culture and beliefs. This essay compares
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The first one was dated back to the Old Kingdom, particularly the Fourth Dynasty, c.a. 2575–2465 B.C. The latter was dated back to the Neo-Sumerian period, c.a. 2090 B.C, when the city-state of Lagash was ruled by Guidea.
Memi and Sabu were a non royal couple and their statue would be typically found in tomb chapels with the purpose of allowing the spirit of the deceased to get into it. On the contrary, Gudea was the king of Lagash and his statue had the function of praising the kings and demonstrating devotion to the gods. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d.).
Such differences in purpose were probably the responsible for the divergence in position and medium between the two statues. The Royal Acquaintances Memi and Sabu was created in limestone and lately painted, a medium and technique typical of the era. Contrarily, the Statue of Gudea was created using diorite, a material harder to sculpt. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d.). This subtle detail of material can contrast the power that Gudea had compared to that of Memi and Sabu, considering that each belonged to different eras and
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In the case of The Royal Acquaintances Memi and Sabu, Memi is a few centimetres taller than Sabu and portrays wide shoulders and strong arms. All these details depict that Sabu is the one who had more power in the relationship. The same physical characteristics can be observed in Gudea’s torso. Another similarity that can be appreciated is the level of detail of the body, especially the face where it is possible to compare Sabu’s and Gudea’s eyes and look, both with a big size and facing the front. It is also important to remark that, even if the function is different, both statues have inscriptions that allow us to have more information on their