“Pictorial Mythology and Narrative in the Ancient Near East.” In Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art, edited by M. Feldman and B. Brown, 265-293. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 2014 By Karen Sonik

https://www.academia.edu/7596599/_Pictorial_Mythology_and_Narrative_in_the_Ancient_Near_East_In_Critical_Approaches_to_Ancient_Near_Eastern_Art_edited_by_M_Feldman_and_B_Brown_265_293_Berlin_and_New_York_de_Gruyter_2014?rhid=40606212784&swp=rr-rw-wc-168298708&nav_from=36dd07f9-d211-469d-98aa-f7fcc3aa9e33 This study assesses the strategic deployment and polysemic functioning of mythological imagery in both the official (Machtkunst) and popular arts of Mesopotamia. It also addresses, as a corollary, such issues as the definition and status of art and the artist in the ancient Near East; the relationship between patron and artist or artisan; the implications of mass production or the deliberate copying of certain art forms or images, as through the use of molds or sketch- or pattern-“books”; degrees of literacy among the general population, and especially among those involved in the crafting of individual artworks or the designing of larger visual programs; the cultural role of mythology in Mesopotamia and the relationship between those myths extant in writing and those (now lost) circulating as oral compositions; and the striking mismatch between text and image, and especially between written (Sumerian and Akkadian) mythological narrative and pictorial narrative or visual mythological representation. It is concluded that the numerous and varied mythologies of Mesopotamia, both oral and written, were conventionalized through two deliberate visual strategies: (1) the circulation and replication of certain figural stereotypes; and (2) the visual representation of even complex mythological scenes or episodes in iconic form. Both strategies yielded a conventionalized composition capable of circulating independently of any single or immutable signification, allowing for its flexible deployment and investment with meaning by those representing it and its interpretation on multiple levels by a diverse audience of heterogeneous cultural knowledge and experience. ...