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Ancient Near Eastern Art in Context (Culture and History of the Ancient Near East) By Feldman, M. Cheng, J.

Through published works and in the classroom, Irene Winter served as a mentor for the latest generation of scholars of Mesopotamian visual culture. The contributions to this volume in her honor represent a cross section of the state of scholarship today.

INTRODUCTION

Jack Cheng and Marian H. Feldman

Irene Winter is widely recognized as the seminal scholar of ancient

Near Eastern art of her generation, in large part due to the limitless

imagination of her scholarship and her insistence on the material’s

relevance in art historical and Mesopotamian studies. She began her

career with a magisterial dissertation on North Syrian ivories that

immediately established her commitment to an understanding of Near

Eastern art through a contextualizing lens. She subsequently turned

her attention to Neo-Assyrian arts and in particular the throneroom

of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud. Building on the work of Julian Reade,

Mario Liverani and others, Irene broke fresh ground in proposing

the expression of a coherent Assyrian ideological system by means of

a programmatic architectural, visual and textual design. Similarly, in

her work on Gudea of Lagash, she brought text and image together

and forged them through her familiarity with ethnography to reframe

a study of statuary into a consideration of living idols that required

care and maintenance. Again and again, objects that seem to have exhausted

their store of historical information become not deconstructed

but re-constructed under Irene’s gaze, opening up new possibilities

for understanding them. Fully engaged in the Near Eastern sources

while drawing upon theoretical approaches from numerous disciplines

rarely brought together, Irene arrives at conclusions that had never

before been considered and that irrevocably alter the way we see

the artifacts under study. In addition, she has taken care to publish

her papers in a range of journals and essay collections so that the

material reaches the greatest audience and so that discussions of the

theories and ideas presented enter a diversity of fields and disciplines

where they may be further tested and applied.

At the same time, Irene has always taken her pedagogical responsibilities

seriously and has shared her teaching across a wide spectrum of

eager acolytes. For that reason, when several of her students considered

what form of tribute would be fitting for her, they decided that a

volume of essays, written and edited by the younger generation that

has benefited so much from her intellectual generosity, was particularly

apt. Thus was born this collection of essays that is uniquely informed

by the perspective of our educational formation under her tutelage.

Toward the end of January 2006, Irene and Jack spoke about the

recent passing of Erica Reiner and Hayim Tadmor. “Those were the

last two who had any connection to my dissertation,” she told him.

“It’s a little like losing your last parent.” And then, of course, Irene

told more stories of her mentors, never flinching from telling details

even if they were unflattering—to them or to herself—and always

conveying the mutual warmth and respect she felt for her friends.

It’s a shame, Jack responded, that this rich history “behind the

scenes” in Near Eastern scholarship is never preserved. Oh, but it

is, Irene said. “I’ve heard so many stories from [Edith] Porada and

Leo [Oppenheim] and I tell them to you, and you’ll pass down those

stories, and maybe stories about me. They may not last more than

three generations, but they’re there.”

We had considered writing down some of these stories, but upon

reflection the stories serve better in an oral tradition for a number of

reasons. Libel laws being the first. But also because in an oral tradition

the stories take on the sheen of legend or fable, and become

more meaningful for that reason. One story we love to hear Irene

tell involves two of her mentors, Edith Porada and Leo Oppenheim.

The bare bones version: Edith, while studying in a Chicago library,

was coaxed out for a ride in Oppenheim’s red convertible and even

escaped the library from a second story window. We’re sure we’ve

gotten more than one detail wrong in the retelling but it doesn’t

matter—it’s a great story because of the wonderful image and because

it reveals that the professor emeritus we knew at Columbia University

was once vivacious and impetuous; for all her dedication to her work,

even Porada knew there was more to life than the library.

Stories about Irene are not like that. They don’t reveal a side of

her that you didn’t know because those sides aren’t there. Her public

conduct is as warm, generous, open and principled as her private life.

And in turn, she socializes, follows horse racing and reads science fiction

novels with the same enthusiasm and intensity that she brings to

her scholarship. One doesn’t wonder what Irene “really” feels about

art collectors, or a particular museum curator, or her students. In her

teaching, her lectures and her writing she makes her positions clear.



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