Gudea, prince of the state of Lagash

This piece depicts a man in frontal position. His muscular arms imply power while his hands are clasped in a gesture of prayer. His wide-brimmed cap indicates that he is a king. This statue is one of a number of representations of the sovereign, Gudea, Lord of Lagash, the ancient Sumerian city-state. Here he is depicted as an orant, in a posture of eternal prayer before the gods of Lagash. This idealised portrait conveys the image of a pious ruler. Around twenty of these sculptures have survived, the majority of which are housed in the Louvre. While this statue is anepigraphic (i.e. does not bear any inscriptions), others bear an inscription mentioning the ruler’s name.