Warka Vase

Title: Warka Vase

Essential image: Yes

Artist: Unknown

Year: 3200-3000 BCE.

Orgin: Uruk (Modern Warka), Iraq

School/Time Period: Sumerian

Size: 3' 1/4'' high

Medium: Alabaster

Main Point #1: The first great work of narrative relief sculpture known.

Main Point #2: Shows a religious festival in honor of the goddess.

Essential Image info- The vase is divided into three bands, also known as friezes or registers. This was a break from the from the figure placement in earlier art. Artists use registers to tell a story. The lowest band shows ewes and rams, with crops and flowing water below them. The alternating male and female animals represent fertility, and the crops represent the blessing that Inanna had blessed them with. In the center band, it shows a procession of men carrying offerings to the goddess. These men are a composite of frontal and profile views, with large frontal eyes with a profile head. The way the artist shows the eyes is considered as a technique called conceptual, opposed to optical. The uppermost band illustrates a "goddess" wearing a horned headdress and a man referred to as the "Priest-king". The vase shows a man carrying a large basket full of offerings to the woman, commonly referred to as Inanna. Inanna and the Priest-King are noticeably taller than the offering bearers, which shows their greater importance (Hierarchy of Scale).