Confronted animals
Bilateral symmetry is a dominant aspect of our world and strong representation of it with matching figures often creates a balance that is appealing in artwork.
Many cylinder seals involving confronted goats surrounding a central Tree of life on a 'cone' or 'mountain' platform share one common theme.
Because cylinder seals are numerous and also come from pre-historical periods, back to the fourth or 5th millennium BC, themes are varied.
The reverse side of the Gebel el-Arak Knife handle, displayed at the top of the article, shows two powerful confronted lions, separated by a figure who is grasping them.
Of note, the knob on the reverse shows the top end of the hole for a cord or rope, on the suspension lug; this knife may have been worn around the neck ceremonially.
Debate exists in research of this image, questioning whether these are leopards or lionesses confronted with a column between them that represents the deity, but the characteristic tufts at the end of the tails confirm the species.
Human figures are often treated in the same way, often mixed in with animals in decorative schemes - archers were especially popular in the Romanesque period.
The early Anglo-Saxon ship burial found in contemporary Great Britain at Sutton Hoo, from the seventh century AD, contains famous examples of Migration Period art.
Opposed animals are used in Insular art, the style of which is derived from a mixture of Celtic and northern European design traditions.
Dated to the 13th–16th century, they represent carpets woven during the transition period between the late Seljuq and the early Ottoman empire.
Parallels were shown between the "opposed animal" and "latch-hook" motifs from woven pile rugs and the Lorestān bronzes.
[3] These are Early Iron Age bronze artifacts of various individual forms which have been recovered from Lorestān and Kermanshah areas in west-central Iran.
Carpet fragments discovered in Konya and Beyşehir in Turkey, and Fostat in Egypt were dated to the 13th century, which corresponds to the Anatolian Seljuq Period (1243–1302).
A traditional Chinese motif, the fight between phoenix and dragon, is seen in an Anatolian carpet now displayed at the Pergamon Museum, Berlin, and radiocarbon dated to the mid 15th century.
One of these carpets was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art[8] which parallels a painting by the Sienese artist Gregorio di Cecco: "The Marriage of the Virgin", 1423.
"Powhatan's Mantle" is a cloak of deerskin, which originally belonged to a Native American of high social status.
Its decoration consists of shell beadwork, depicting a central standing human figure flanked by two upright, opposed quadrupeds and surrounded by 34 discs.
