A Photogrammetric Study of Three Gudea Statues

This study reveals the use of a consistent system of proportions in three life-size, standing statues in stone, attributed to the latest group of sculptures from the reign of Gudea of Lagash, datable to the last quarter of the third millennium B.C. This system of proportions is evidenced in a six-part division of the overall height of the body, expressed in six multiples of the length of the forearm (elbow to wrist). The correspondence between the division of the height of the image with bends in the body (roughly at the neck, waist, hips, knees and ankles) is suggested by measurement of the Gudea statues against Gudea's cubit of 24 divisions, and generally confirmed by ratios obtained with the aid of photogrammetry. These findings suggest that Gudea's statues were conceived as superimposed blocks in a six-tiered format that is most clearly and consistently expressed in stone sculpture attributed to the latest phase of Gudea's reign. During this period, when large blocks of imported diorite were exceptionally plentiful, the stone was readily cut to conform to the requirements of the prevailing artistic canon. However, earlier in the reign of Gudea, when stone was less plentiful, the sculptor sacrificed canonic proportions to material limitations. The earlier sculptor's reluctance to reduce the precious, uncut stone block to achieve a proportionally smaller image thus results in relatively short and squat statues in which the ideal six-tiered vertical format is reduced by one or two units. That standard proportions prevailed in sculpture from the classical or latest group of Gudea statuary, moreover, testifies to the implementation of artistic norms in the visual arts in an age that also sought to establish standards in other media of cultural expression

Photogrammetry · Remote sensing · 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage · Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis · Geology · Image Processing and 3D Reconstruction

• Assembling King and State

  Melissa Eppihimer•American Journal of Archaeology•2010

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