Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

King grasping two lions

between 550 B.C. and 450 B.C.
greyish-brown limestone ;
Morgan Seal 823
Description
1 cylinder seal greyish-brown limestone ; 24 x 9 mm
Provenance
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes
"Seals 819-825 show the motif most frequently encountered in Achaemenian cylinders--that of a king holding at bay or subduing two monsters or lions, rendered in a symmetrical composition recalling the Assyrian cylinders 753-763. The king wears the billowy Persian garments in all of these scenes, except for the occurrence of the fringed Assyrian mantle in 822."--Porada, CANES, p. 103
Summary
King grasping two lions -- Terminal: bird above tree.
Classification
Department