Some time ago, I commissioned a piece of Inanna/Ninshubur art from my favorite mythology artist, Yacmo Tsuji (they also have a tumblr account - @cubclin-2 - but they arenât active on this platform anymore, sadly). It was finished last week, you can view it here.
Please check out the artistâs other works on their social media as well, I think they might be the only person to ever draw minor Baal Cycle characters like Baalâs daughters or Gupan and Ugar.
Some additional notes:
The source of the pose is the stele of Ur-Nammu, where Nanna and Ningal are seated this way. While otherwise rare, it has a widely agreed upon interpretation: it reflects romantic intimacy between the deities involved (Julia M. Asher-Greve, Joan G. Westenholz, Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Genderin Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources, p. 190-191). In other words, it would undeniably read as romantic to a late third/early second millennium BCE audience - and thus an ideal fit for what I had in mind, seeing as my versions largely depend on texts which go back to the Old Babylonian scribal school curriculum (with some later additions).Â
If youâre curious why I interpret Inanna and Ninshubur as a couple, consult my old article Ninshubur, Inannaâs Sukkal: Just a Servant or Something More? It doesnât follow my current habit of inline sourcing, and some information about me in the lead is out of date but I still stand by everything else there. Note the commissioned artwork reflects my own fiction, though, it's not intended as an academic statement of some sort - even if I do believe the subtext is there in the primary sources to some degree.
The color palette is based on the sole depiction of Inanna with some color left we have, and one of my favorite works of Mesopotamian art in general, the fresco from Mari showing Zimri-Limâs investiture (you can see Inanna here). I asked for the addition of blue, though, since itâs associated with Inanna, Ninshubur and deities in general in Mesopotamian literature due to the popularity of lapis lazuli as a luxury good.
Ninshuburâs shoes are not strictly Mesopotamian. I wanted them to be something special because of herunusual epithet âpure minister of the lapis lazuli shoesâ (Frans Wiggermann, Nin-ĹĄubur in Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie vol. 9, p. 498; attested only once, but hey). The point of reference was Minoan art (and Egyptian art of âKeftiuâ, ie. Minoans) instead. Shoes were imported from Crete, or at least produced locally based on Cretan originals, according to administrative texts from the reign of Zimri-Lim; due to their unusual, foreign character they were in all due likeness seen as desirable luxury goods, to be used as status symbols or valuable gifts (Lucia Alberti, Making the Invisible Visible: Cretan Objects Mentioned in the Cuneiform Texts of Mari and Archaeological Discoveries of Crete in the II Millennium BC. p. 120-124). Once again, the time period fits perfectly, and if the shoes are important enough to be the source of an epithet I think it makes sense to make them the bronze age equivalent of an unusual designer brand.
Inannaâs hair pretty commonly seems to be braided on seals (ex. here), I think it makes for a pretty distinct look so Iâve been drawing her this way myself. Not much to explain here.
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