Gudea

A compact, 2-foot statue of Prince Gudea carved in speckled, dark-gray igneous dolerite has him clutching a vase close to his chest.

Gudea looks a bit like a fireplug.

Another almost life-size statue of Gudea — this one headless, so without the tight, wide-rimmed wool cap that elsewhere immediately identifies him — shows the prince seated and with a blank tablet on his lap.

In a short animated video, the divine title creature commands one Gudea of Lagash to build him a temple; and in the ink and acrylic drawing “The Ritual of the First Brick,” four hands mark out that hypothetical temple’s first corners.

A second gallery presents some examples, including two seated female figures with hands clasped Sumerian style by Henry Moore and, by Alberto Giacometti, sketches of “Gudea, prince of Lagash, seated statue dedicated to the god Ningishzida,” a sculpture of a man wearing a cylindrical, domed hat that’s in the Louvre.