Morganmobile: Art Within Art
In a seal carved nearly five millennia ago, horned animals bounding across a field are reduced to arcs and curves—a pattern as immediate and vital as a paper cutout by Henri Matisse. Approximately 2500 years after the seal was carved, a delicate cuneiform inscription was added in the available open spaces within the design. The meaning of the inscription, made at nearly the end of 3000 years of cuneiform writing, remains elusive.
Cylinder Seal with Modern Impression: Pattern of Two Running Goats One Above the Other. Mesopotamia, Early Dynastic I period (ca. 2900–2750 B.C.). Serpentine. Inscription added ca. 400 B.C. Seal no. 48. Acquired by Pierpont Morgan before 1908.