Assyrian human-headed winged bull from Nimrud; 9th cent. BCE; Pergamon Museum, Berlin
A Lamassu is an Assyrian protective deity, often depicted as having a human’s head, a body of an ox or a lion, and bird’s wings.
In some writings, it is portrayed to represent a female deity.
In ancient Mesopotamia the Lamassu was not only believed to be very powerful but was also a clear reminder of the king’s ultimate authority and as symbols of protection for all the people.
These creatures famously protected the theone room and important parts of the city.

These mythical creatures were also supposed to bless nearby houses

The Lamassu motif first appeared in royal palaces at Nimrud, during the reign of Ashurnasirpal II, and disappeared after the reign of Ashurbanipal who ruled between 668 BC and 627 BC.

The symbol of a lion a brave and strong head of a tribe, but also as a protector could have evolved from the Lamassu.

Gallery Text

Rodin modeled more than two hundred figures inspired by Dante’s Inferno for his massive sculptural project that came to be known as the Gates of Hell (1880–c. 1890). This celebrated figural group, derived from that work, was carved for the painter Eugène Carrière, who reluctantly lent it to the watershed 1900 Rodin retrospective exhibition. There it was so enthusiastically received that Rodin produced a second marble of the figures. The title is puzzling. Women were often described as “idols” in nineteenth-century poetry; the woman here may be only an ideal, in spite of her cool, fleshly presence. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote: “a mysterious greatness emanates from this group. . . . One doesn’t dare assign a meaning to it. . . . A heaven is near, but is not yet attained; a hell is near, and not yet forgotten.”

The Walking Man (French: L’homme qui marche) is a bronze sculpture by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. It was created by Rodin during 1877 and 1878.

Rodin deemed head and arms superfluous to this sculpture.

IRIS, MESSENGER OF THE GODS

Auguste Rodin (1840 -1917)

Circa 1895

Bronze

Gallery Text from Rodin museum

The origin of Iris can be traced to the enlargement of a study for the allegorical figure intended to crown the second project for the Monument to Victor Hugo (1897), in which the poet is portrayed standing, with the figure placed in a plunging position. It was then completed by a stretched right arm, a head and a pair of wings.

Deprived of its head and one of its arms to concentrate better on the basic essentials, with legs spread apart and the sex opened in front of the viewer, Iris, Messenger of the Gods recalls to a certain extent The Origin of the World by Courbet (1866, Musée d’Orsay). Auguste Rodin may have had an opportunity to see it through Edmond de Goncourt who saw the painting himself on 29 June 1889, during a period when he used to frequent Rodin, who he mentioned on several occasions in the Journal. Rodin’s decision to present Iris vertically, as if suspended in space, and in an almost frontal position, has turned this figure into a strong and triumphant image of femininity, a promise of pleasure and life but also of mystery.