I am going to compare the Great Lyre with Bull's Head from present day Muqaiyir, Iraq, c. 2600-2500 BCE and Bull's Head Rhyton from Knossos, Crete, c. 1550-1450 BCE.
The Great Lyre bull's head from Iraq is made from wood with gold, silver, and shell among other things. The Rhyton is made from steatite with shell, rock crystal, and red jasper. Rhyton, because it is made from a very solid and indestructible looking stone appears much more intense and tough. It appears very heavy and intimidating. Whereas the other one seems much more soft and child-like. This idea is perpetuated by the crinkling of the gold that the head is made out of, it seems much softer because of this. This one also looks almost innocent, with it's large eyes that seem to be looking upwards without worry or intention. While the Bull's-Head Rhyton is much more intimidating. His long tusks and small eyes that look as if they are squinting in seriousness. He appears very noble and commands respect, in contrast to the one from Iraq looks as if he could be a child's toy.
The Bull's-Head of Rhyton is much more realistically done than the Great Lyre. His ears are shaped with the curve of a natural bulls, his face shape and the long, thickness of his neck allude very much to the characteristics of a bull. The Great Lyre's tusks are very short, his ears are disproportionate, and his beard is obviously not naturalistic in more ways than one. Bulls of course do not have beards and the beard is shaped very stylistically with thick curls and separate pieces that do not fall the way hair would fall in real life. The top of his head is also down with stylistic short curls. The snout of the Great Lyre bull alludes more to a cow's snout (or this is what I see) so it somewhat looks as if a bull's tusks were stuck on a cow's head. The Rhyton bull also has stylistic features such as the carved fur on the top of his head. The viewer gets the idea of the tight-knit curls but it is not completely realistic. His eyes are also very realistic; the shape of the eyes, the surrounding eye area, and the actual eye itself seems quite real. The Great Lyre bull's eye is extremely stylistically done. The shape is somewhat similar of a bulls eye but it is not as realistic, and the artist used materials that did not as closely relate to a mammal's eye as the Rhyton artist did.
The artist of the Bull's-head of Rhyton seemed to want to convey the idea of power and strength in his bull which is mirrored in the strength of the material and the overall commanding appearance of the bull.
The Great Lyre with Bull's head artist did not seem to share the need to convey overwhelming power in his bull but that does not mean it appears any less important.
I really like that you compared the expressions of the bulls faces. I wonder why they chose to create the Great Lyre with a beard because this is so unnatural from what we know bulls to look like. I wonder if it could be to show some sort of power or importance of this animal in their culture. I also like that you talked about how realistic or unrealistic these two pieces looked. It is interesting that though they are very different, they are also both very important.
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