Edith Porada

Edith Porada (22 August 1912 – 24 March 1994) was an Austrian-born, American art historian, archaeologist, professor of art history and archaeology at Columbia University, and curator of J. Pierpont Morgan’s collection of more than 1,000 ancient seals from the Near East. She was elected in 1969 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and elected in 1978 to the American Philosophical Society.

Quotes

Mesopotamian Art in Cylinder Seals of the Pierpont Morgan Library (1947)

• As a rule cylinders were perforated lengthwise, so that a wire or piece of string could be passed through the hole and then fastened to the necklace or wristband on which the seal was usually worn. Fairly often the seal-stones were set between caps of gold, silver, or copper.
  • Mesopotamian Art in Cylinder Seals of the Pierpont Morgan Library. Pierpont Morgan Library. 1947. p. 8.  (81 pages)

• The downfall of the Sargonid dynasty was brought about by the Guti, a barbarous people who swept down from the northeastern mountains and subjugated the country in the twenty-second century b.c. As a result of the invasion, Mesopotamian art suffered a general disintegration. There were, however, a few centers of culture in which the standards set by the Akkadians continued in force. One of these centers was Lagash. Here, under the later part of the Guti domination, reigned a priest-prince named Gudea whose statues show a technically proficient adherence to Akkad tradition.
  • p. 38, 1st part of quote; 2nd part of quote

Man and Images in the Ancient Near East (1995)

• Major sculptures which first attracted the attention of the world's art lovers to the ancient Near East derive from the time of Gudea of Lagash, known to have been an elder contemporary of Ur-Nammu ...
  • Man and Images in the Ancient Near East. Volume 4 of Anshen transdisciplinary lectureships in art, science, and the philosophy of culture (illustrated ed.). Moyer Bell. 1995. p. 119. ISBN 9781559211291.  (188 pages)

• Akkad, the capital of the dynasty since Sargon founded it, remains to be discovered.
  • p. 125

Quotes about Edith Porada

• In the introductory essay, illustrated almost entirely with cylinders from the Pierpont Morgan Collection, Porada demonstrates how evidence derived from excavations post-dating the publication of her definitive catalogue of these seals (Corpus of Ancient Near Eastern Seals, 1948) can refine our understaning of the chronology, iconography, and styles of ancient Near Eastern cylinder seals generally and of the Morgan seals specifically. The text is studied with insights and lavishly annotated with references to works both recently published and forthcoming.
  • Margaret Cool Root, (April 1982) "book review: Ancient Art in Seals. Essays by Pierre Amiet, Nimet Özgüç and John Boardman by Edith Porada, Pierre Amiet, Nimet Özgüç, and John Boardman". American Journal of Archaeology 86 (2): 302–303. DOI:0.2307/504848.

• Porada, born in Vienna, fled Europe in 1938, after Kristallnacht. One of the few things she brought with her to New York was the plate copy of her dissertation, complete with her drawings of seal impressions from European collections, which she presented to Belle da Costa Greene, the Morgan’s first director.
  In ancient Mesopotamia, cylinder seals — often carved with exquisitely detailed scenes — were used to roll the owner’s unique stamp onto a document produced by scribes, attesting to its authenticity.
  • Jennifer Schuessler, (November 9, 2022) "In Search of Enheduanna, the Woman Who Was History’s First Named Author. “She Who Wrote,” an exhibition at the Morgan Library, explores the world of an ancient Mesopotamian priestess who wrote with a strikingly personal voice". The New York Times: p. 1, Section C.

External links

• (March 26, 1994) "Edith Porada, 81, Dies; Columbia Art Historian". The New York Times: p. 8, Section 1.