Decorated Garments in Ashurnasirpal's Sculpture

Abstract

To judge from the reliefs in the palace of Ashurnasirpal at Nimrud, elaborately patterned clothes were very much in vogue in 9th century B.C. Assyria. Even soldiers in battle may wear gaily decorated skirts. The patterns consist mostly of floral or geometric designs on the order of those first seen on royal garments on post-Kassite kudurrus. Since such patterns are brightly coloured in the wall paintings at Til Barsip or on the enamelled bricks at Assur, we are led to believe that the designs carved on the reliefs represent embroideries.A small number of figures (only some of them royal) on the reliefs from Nimrud wear robes decorated with unusually complex patterns, consisting of figures of animals, monsters, genii, kings and some narrative scenes. This special kind of embroidery caught Layard's attention and he painstakingly recorded the designs in his Monuments of Nineveh, published in London in 1853. From these drawings a picture has been formed of 9th century B.C. Assyrian textiles. The embroidery patterns have been used to date Assyrian motifs, as well as to identify the Assyrian prototypes for elements in Assyrianizing art from other areas. The export of such textiles has been credited with spreading Assyrian motifs abroad. The importance which these special embroideries have in Assyrian studies is, then, out of proportion to the tiny scale, or to their incidental contribution to the aesthetic effect of the sculpture of the palace.

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