Inanna - Ishtar, Conqueror of Death

This sculpture was inspired by Sumerian- and Babylonian goddess Ishtar. What intrigues me about this goddess is how versatile she is, both in her domains (love, fertility, war, justice and death) and her popularity in Mesopotamian and Proto-Indo-European cultures; inspiring goddesses as Astarte, Aphrodite and Venus.
In the execution of the sculpture, I was inspired and mentored by Maarten Verhoeven.

I wanted this goddess to radiate power, holiness, protectiveness and beauty. In some depictions of Ishtar, she's shown being winged and having zygodactylous feet, I wanted to lean into these ideas; giving her a lion-like feathered tail and a partial feathered body.

I also gave her something alien, by replacing her cradled pregnant belly with golden spirals, showing an egg inside it.
She's standing atop of a Lamassu statue, a mythical hybrid creature of a bull with the head of a man.

I had a lot of fun with reading the ancient stories about this goddess and translating them into this sculpture.