# @gettymuseum on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CaStRIDO0TA
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/34228558-gettymuseum-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/f31ff9d264.jpg
- **Posted:** 2022-02-22T20:03:36.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Getty (@gettymuseum) — https://gondola.cc/gettymuseum

## Caption

"Can you feel the love tonight?" 🎶🎵🦁💞

Love is all around...and always has been! This month, #ConnectingCollections is exploring love and passion in the ancient world.

This is a fragmentary relief panel that once decorated the palace of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (in present-day Iraq). A male and female lion relax in a tranquil garden setting amid trees, blooming lilies, and grapes on the vine. The artist carefully rendered the animals' coats and anatomy as well as the flora that surrounds them.

The lions were likely kept in captivity in Ashurbanipal's palace gardens, either as pets or to produce offspring that would later become the victims of royal hunts. Hunting was a passion of the Assyrian kings, and it symbolically communicated their power and strength. But this scene shows that the Assyrians didn't only view nature as a force to be conquered—they also admired its nobility. Scenes like this show an Assyrian love of nature that adds an unexpected dimension to Ashurbanipal's lion-hunting scenes, which were displayed nearby on the palace walls.

See this and other relief scenes from ancient Assyrian palaces in the exhibition "Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq," now on view at the Getty Villa.
.
.
.
🏷 #GettyMuseum #GettyVilla #Assyria #AncientArt #AncientWorld #ReliefPanel #Iraq #Lions #Animals

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 920
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 8

## Tags

lions, iraq, animals, reliefpanel, gettymuseum, gettyvilla, ancientworld, ancientart, assyria, connectingcollections

---
Copyright (c) Gondola