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The Master of (the) Animals or Lord of the Animals is a motif in ancient art showing a human between and grasping two confronted animals. It is very widespread in the art of the Ancient Near East and Egypt. The figure is normally male, but not always, the animals may be realistic or fantastical, and the figure may have animal elements such as horns, or an animal upper body. Unless he is shown with specific divine attributes, he is typically described as a hero, although what the motif represented to the cultures which created the works probably varies greatly.〔Ross, Micah (ed), ''From the Banks of the Euphrates: Studies in Honor of Alice Louise Slotsky'', pp. 174-177, 2008, Eisenbrauns, ISBN 1575061449, 9781575061443, (Google books )〕 The motif is so widespread and visually effective that many depictions were probably conceived as decoration with only a vague meaning attached to them.〔Frankfort, 75〕 The Master of Animals is the "favorite motif of Achaemenian official seals", but the figures in these cases should be understood as the king.〔Teissier, Beatrice, ''Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals from the Marcopolic Collection'', p. 46, 1984, University of California Press, ISBN 0520049276, 9780520049277, (google books )〕 The human figure may be standing, found from the 4th millennium BC, or kneeling on one knee, these latter found from the 3rd millennium BC. He is usually shown looking frontally, but in Assyrian pieces typically shown from the side. Sometimes the animals are clearly alive, whether fairly passive and tamed, or still struggling or attacking. In other pieces they may represent dead hunter's prey.〔"Horse Cheekpiece" by "OWM", in ''Notable Acquisitions, 1980-1981'', pp. 7-8, 1981, Metropolitan Museum of Art, ISBN 0870992848, 9780870992841, (google books )〕 Other associated representations show a figure controlling or "taming" a single animal, usually to the right of the figure. But the many representations of heros or kings killing an animal are distinguished from these.〔Arruz, 308〕 ==Art== The motif takes pride of place at the top of the famous Gebel el-Arak Knife in the Louvre, an ivory and flint knife dating from the Naqada II d period of Egyptian prehistory, which began c.3450 BC. Here a figure in Mesopotamian dress, often taken to be a god, grapples with two lions. It has been connected to the famous Pashupati seal from the Indus Valley Civilization (2500-1500 BC), showing a figure seated in a yoga-like posture, with a horned headress (or horns), and surrounded by animals.〔Werness, 270〕 This in turn is related to a figure on the Gundestrup cauldron, who sits with legs part-crossed, has antlers, is surrounded by animals and grasps a snake in one hand and a torc in the other. This famous and puzzling object probably dates to 200 BC, or possibly as late as 300 AD, and though found in Denmark was perhaps made in Thrace. The purse cover from the Sutton Hoo burial of about 620 AD has two plaques with a man between two wolves, and the motif is common in Anglo-Saxon art and related Early Medieval styles, where the animals generally remain aggressive. In the Art of Mesopotamia the motif appears very early, usually with a "naked hero", for example at Uruk in the Uruk period (c. 4000 to 3100 BC), but was "outmoded in Mesopotamia by the seventh century BC".〔Frankfort, 30-31 (Uruk), 75, 78-79, 347 (2nd quote)〕 In Luristan bronzes the motif is extremely common, and often highly stylized.〔Frankfort, 343-347〕 In terms of its composition the Master of Animals motif compares with another very common motif in the art of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean, that of two confronted animals flanking and grazing on a Tree of Life. File:Ancient Levantine God.jpg|Gebel el-Arak Knife with Master of Animals motif at the top of the handle File:SumerianBulls.jpg|Protective Master from the harp found at Ur File:Finial in the form of 'Master of Animals' LACMA M.76.97.89.jpg|Luristan bronze finial in the form of the 'Master of Animals' File:Cylinder Seal, Achaemenid, modern impression 05.jpg|Achaemenid seal impression with the Persian king subduing two Mesopotamian lamassu File:Tronconical vase Tepe Giyan Louvre AO31918.jpg|Iranian Master of Animals with two snakes File:Yogi. Mold of Seal, Indus valley civilization.jpg|Impression from the Pashupati seal, Indus Valley Civilization File:Gundestrup antlered figure.jpg|Detail of the Gundestrup Cauldron antlered figure File:Relief plaque with confronted ibexes, Iran, Sasanian period, 5th or 6th century AD, stucco originally with polychrome painting - Cincinnati Art Museum - DSC03952.JPG|Confronted animals, here ibexes, flank a Tree of Life 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Master of Animals」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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