Amanda Landry Case

Amanda Landry

Art 114/ Formal Analysis Paper 1: 1/24/2013

The Warka Vase is the oldest example that we in which we know of Sumerian narrative art. The sculptor actually divided the tall and slender stone vase's reliefs into registers, or several bands, creating a significant break with the haphazard figure placement which was found in earlier art (Kleiner, pg.20). The register format that is for telling a story was done to have a very long future, in fact artists still to this day employ registers in modified form seen in comic books (Kleiner, pg.20-21). The Warka Vase, which originates from Uruk, or modern Warka, Iraq ca.3200-3000BCE., was made from Alabaster and stands 3'1/4'' high... It is also considered to be the first great work of narrative relief sculpture that is known (Kleiner, pg.20-21). It happened to be found in the Inanna temple complex, and it in fact depicts a religious festival, which was in honor of the goddess (Kleiner, pg.21). The lowest band on the Warka Vase displays crops, and above the crops ewes and rams are then displayed in strict profile. These displays were associated with fertility, and it was a reminder that Inanna had indeed blessed Uruk's citizens with good plentiful crops, and even more plentiful herds (Kleiner, pg.21). On the band that sits higher than the animals, displays naked men carrying baskets and jars that is beyond full with the Earth's blessings. They are then shown giving these baskets and jars to the goddess as an offering of gratitude, and made in fulfillment of a vow (Kleiner, pg.21). The men are a composite of frontal as well as profile views. The eyes are depicted as being large and frontal, while the head is depicted in profile. It is believed that the artist indicated those human body parts necessary to communicate the actual human form and decided to avoid positions, attitudes, and views that would conceal the characterizing parts (Kleiner, pg.21). Near the only partially clothed man depicted on the Warka Vase is the early pictograph for the Sumerian official that is most often called a "priest-king", which is considered to be both a secular, as well as a religious leader. Notice that the 'priest-king' is displayed with greater height, as is Inanna, compared to the men who carry the offerings; this was done to indicate their greater importance, a convention referred to as hierarchy of scale (Kleiner, pg.21). Because the Warka Vase is one of the earliest examples of narrative art in Mesopotamia, it is in this regard considered to be a founding document of Egyptian Art.