Peter Bruegel the Elder, The Little Tower of Babel, 1563, oil on panel, 60 x 74.5 cm, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, © Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

The Louvre
quai du Louvre
+ 40 20 51 51 - 40 20 53 17
Paris
Napoleon Hall
Babylon
March 14-June 2, 2008

Through the centuries, the name Babylon has continued to ring with deep significance far and wide. Indeed, no city in world history has been more envied and feared, admired and reviled. And yet, beneath all of its trappings, from the most prestigious to the most vilified, Babylon is much more than a myth.

This exhibition brings together a rich and varied treasure trove of nearly 400 works, on loan from collections in 13 countries, with the aim of reconciling the legend of Babylon with its history. Spanning five millennia (from the end of the 2nd millennium B.C. to the beginning of the 20th century), it pays tribute both to the historical and cultural importance of this ancient city and the way in which its reality was later transformed into the mythical Babylon.

To this day, no exhibition has ever been devoted to Babylon. Although several have referred to the Tower of Babel, none has attempted to bring to life the historic city of Babylon nor to acquaint museum visitors with the genuine Babylonian civilization whose influence spread throughout the entire ancient Near East. Museum visitors in France will thus be able to discover the first in-depth analysis attempting to reconstruct the history as well as the architectural and decorative aspects of this ancient city.

Moreover, legends and symbolic traditions relating to Babylon have never before been presented from a historical perspective, by returning to the actual facts that gave rise to them. The conception of this major exhibition perceiving Babylon as a historical entity is therefore the culmination of an extensive research project bringing together findings and text sources unearthed at archaeological sites, but is also the result of studies on later traditions, some of which were little known previously. The Louvre thus aims to provide the full measure of Babylon’s cultural legacy, within contemporary as well as later civilizations, and to restore it to its rightful position as an essential element in the understanding of Western culture. Thanks to exceptional loans, both in quantity and in quality, particularly from German and British museums, the exhibition also allows visitors to discover a number of works, including a fascinating group of manuscripts, that have never been on view before in France.

Curators are Béatrice André- Salvini, Curator in Charge, Department of Near Eastern Antiquities, and Sébastien Allard, Curator, Department of Painting, Musée du Louvre. The exhibition travels next to Pergamon Museum in Berlin, June 26-October 5, 2008 and, in a different presentation, to British Museum in London, November 13-March 15, 2009.

Organized in three sections, the exhibition takes a historical approach to the works presented. It first delves into the ancient city, then explores Babylon’s fame and reputation, from the earliest times to the beginning of the 20th century, and closes with the rediscovery of the Babylonian civilization made possible by archaeological excavations. The entire itinerary forms a highly coherent whole, during which all the objects shown speak to each other: from the actual city to the rediscovery of the ruins of the actual city, taking in developments in the myth of Babylon along the way.

The historical city
For the first time in a museum exhibition, the impressive history and architecture of the ancient city of Babylon are appreciated on their own merits and underscored by presenting material and textual documentation provided by archaeological excavations. Thanks to cntinuing studies on these ruins, it is possible to reconstitute a history of Babylon that does not refer mainly to Biblical or late classical sources, as has long been the case. Contrasting with the distorted vision of Babylon, seen through the prism of its neighbors (friends or enemies, conquerors or conquered) or posterity, visitors can now explore a more comprehensive portrait of Babylon as perceived by Babylonians themselves. The history of this city of incomparable prestige and widespread influence is punctuated by four key periods, all of which are examined in the exhibition:

§ The reign of Hammurabi (early 18th century B.C.): Under the leadership of this great king, the model of the ideal sovereign, Babylon became the capital of an empire and acquired prominence as a major religious and cultural center. Recognized as the true founder of Babylon, Hammurabi was largely responsible for its rise to power and increasing renown. The main temples, whose edification sites would constitute the central and immutable core of Babylon’s city plan for more than 2,000 years, were built during this period. Among other artifacts, the exhibition presents portraits of the king and his contemporaries (stelae, stone, copper and clay statues and statuettes), victory stelae, samples of royal offerings made at Babylon’s temples (statuettes in precious metals, seals and semi-precious stone jewelry) but also documents allowing us to partially reconstruct the map of the city that archaeological excavations have yet to reveal. The Code of Hammurabi, inscribed on a stela more than two meters high, the most complete and perfect surviving collection of Babylonian laws, is the emblematic work of this part of the exhibition’s first section.

§ The second half of the second millennium B.C.: During this period, Babylon suffered a political decline, remaining a cultural center of far-reaching influence through the dissemination of the teachings of its scribes. The Babylonian language was in fact at this time the lingua franca from Iran to Egypt, the language of diplomats and cultural expression, enabling widespread and penetrating circulation and diffusion of Mesopotamian material civilization and thought. The works brought together for this exhibition highlight the extensive network of contacts with other Near Eastern civilizations (for example, the dissemination of major literary themes, such as the epic of Gilgamesh).

§ Babylon at the height of its glory during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 B.C.): The collapse of the Assyrian empire and a resurgence of nationalism helped restore Babylon to prominence, surpassing even its former renown to become a cosmic center. Nebuchadnezzar II endowed his capital with unequaled splendor. Babylon was considered a symbol of world harmony, born of the power of Marduk, its supreme deity. The city’s architectural and decorative scheme was based in this cosmological vision. Archaeological excavations have revealed rich architectural decorative elements made color-glazed bricks, a small portion reconstituted in the exhibition galleries. This decorative scheme depicts the symbolic figures of the Babylonian religion: the lion, associated with Ishtar, the goddess of love, fertility and war; the dragon of Marduk; and the bull of Adad, the god of thunder and storms. Texts, watercolors executed during excavations by architect Walter Andrae, and objects from Marduk’s sanctuary round out topographic and social exploration of the city, dominated by its ziggurat, which would give rise to the legend of the Tower of Babel. The learning and wisdom of Chaldean sages was at its zenith. This also was the period of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem (587 B.C.), an event that would have a considerable impact on the reputation of this sovereign and his capital.

§ Loss of independence under the Persian Empire: Following its capture by Cyrus the Great in 539 B.C. and loss of independence, Babylon remaine important in the Persian Empire and subsequently became a conservatory of Babylonian culture under the Greek successors of Alexander the Great (who conquered the city in 330 B.C.) and later under Parthian domination (Roman period). The city retained its status as an international capital of culture, even in the darkest hours of its history.

Babylon’s fame and reputation
The second section seeks to explain the importance and profundity of Babylon’s cultural heritage, seldom fully appreciated, and to establish the close connection between legendary and symbolic traditions and ancient Babylon. Retaining historical reality as its main theme, the exhibition attempts to scrutinize the creation of the myth of Babylon, its passage into written and graphical form, exploring its development and adaptations, parallel and successive, over the ages.

§ The lasting imprint of Babylonian civilization In numerous fields, Babylon’s legacy to other civilizations is of capital importance. Until the Middle Ages, from Rome to India, it influenced both Western and Eastern literature and science.

Manuscripts of late Antiquity and the medieval Middle East bear witness to its prominence, conveying Babylonian historical traditions and the wisdom of Chaldean sages. Objects and texts in the exhibition, both Babylonian and Babylonian-inspired found far from Babylon, document this heritage. The exhibition highlights main elements of Babylonian civilization that have survived time, directly or by way of secondary sources: its conception of history (principle of dynastic lists and chronicles that inspired the writers of the Bible as well as classical authors), its teachings (multilingual dictionaries that appeared throughout the ancient Near East), its sciences (laws, weights and measures, astronomy, astrology, divination: the key contribution of the Chaldean sages to Western civilization is the sexagesimal system, the division of the circle into 360 degrees, and the 12 months of the year), its literature and its iconographic themes that would influence the Biblical writers (theme of the Flood, literature of wisdom, historical books) and Greek literature (Homer, fables). Literary compositions and other artistic creations of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times have been influenced by different aspects of Babylonian civilization and history. Babylon also bequeathed a model of government and architectural design (for later great cities: Seleucia, Ctesiphon, Samarra and Baghdad, including Frank Lloyd Wright’s project for the reconstruction of Baghdad in the 20th century).

§ Western and Eastern legends and traditions of Babylonian inspiration Babylon is unique in history, in the eyes of its inhabitants as in those of its neighbors. The mythical dimension is essential to the city and its history. Although there are many legends, two major traditions may be clearly distinguished.

For the Biblical world, the city is synonymous with admiration and evil. Although the historical books of the Bible (Kings, Chronicles) recount real events, at the same time a number of myths were created such as that referring to Babel/Babylon, the accursed city, the city of confusion, whose famous Tower symbolizes overweening pride, or that of Nebuchadnezzar, the archetype of the cursed king. This explains why Babylon later became, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, one of the symbols of evil (the Apocalypse of John: Babylon as the city of the devil, the “mother of prostitutes”) and the antithesis of Jerusalem. A 14th century Flemish manuscript of Saint Augustine’s City of God highlights this aspect, representing Babylon as invaded by diabolical creatures, the embodiments of its vices.

Conversely, for ancient historians, Babylon was an immense and splendid city, home to two of the original seven wonders of the world (its hanging gardens and its walls). The fascination born of this magnificence rapidly resulted in the distortion of historical facts, which gave rise to the legends of Semiramis and Sardanapalus, among others.

Over the centuries, myth thus took precedence over history, abetted during all this time by the absence of archaeological evidence. Even today, the image we have of Babylon results from the interweaving and interpenetration of Biblical and classical traditions.

The history of the city provides the guiding principle and the rationale for the choice of the legendary themes addressed by the exhibition: the Tower of Babel, whose pictorial and printed destiny is considerable (in this context, visitors will be able to view, among others, the “Little” Tower of Babel by Peter Bruegel the Elder, exceptionally loaned for this occasion), Nebuchadnezzar, Balthazar’s Feast, Semiramis, the Hanging Gardens, etc.

Miniatures from the Western and Eastern Middle Ages, manuscripts, drawings and paintings evoke substantial iconographic richness of these legends while also bearing witness to the proliferation of the Babylonian theme in all of its variants and transformations.

The rediscovery of Babylon and its civilization
Never in history has the trace of the site of Babylon been lost (Tell Babil, Iraq). Although Eastern travelers have always visited the area, it was in the 16th century that their Western counterparts rediscovered Babylon, and their perspective began to be reflected in painting and the graphic arts. During the 17th and 18th centuries, literary and scientific works were inspired by the proliferation of political contacts with these regions (A. Kircher, Voltaire, among others) and by the translation of the Thousand and One Nights. It was at this time that the first Babylonian objects brought back to the West began to appear.

Beginning in the middle of the 19th century, the first archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia (at the sites of the former Assyrian kingdom), followed by the decoding of cuneiform inscriptions in the second half of the 19th century, had repercussions in literature and the arts: music, painting and architecture.

The excavations at the site of the ancient city, first limited in scope followed by more in-depth and scientific studies from 1899 (German project) gave a new reality to Babylon, without displacing the myth. For example, some historical paintings follow, in part, the descriptions given by travelers (John Martin, The Fall of Babylon, Belshazzar’s Dream), and later the first results of the Mesopotamian excavations (George Rochegrosse, The Fall of Babylon). D.W. Griffith’s film Intolerance, inspired by these paintings, also demonstrated knowledge of the German excavations at Babylon. The exhibition presents documents relating to this film as well as some of the scenery used.

This history of the rediscovery of Babylon by travelers and the first investigations, followed by archaeological excavations in the early 20th century, is also tied with political developments and changes in mindsets that influenced the conception of Babylon common among European intellectuals.

John Martin (British, 1789-1854), The Fall of Babylon, 1831, Mezzotint with etching, British Museum.

John Martin, Belshazzar’s feast, 1820, New Heaven, Yale, Center for British Art, © Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, USA / The Bridgeman Art Library.

Cornelisz Anthonisz Teunissen, Destruction de la Tour de Babel, 1547, Bruxelles Cabinet des Estampes, Inv Nr. S. V 13259,© Bibliothèque royale de Belgique.

La reine de la nuit, terre cuite, H: 49,5 x l. 37 x ép. 4,8 cm, British Museum, BM, ANE 2003-7-18,1, © The Trustees of the
British Museum.

Statuette du démon Pazuzu, bronze, H. 15 x L. 8,6 x Ep.5,65 cm, Paris, musée du Louvre, MNB 467, © Photo RMN / DR.

Statuette de femme coiffée d’un croissant de lune doré, Albâtre, bronze, yeux et nombril en rubis, H 26 cm, Paris, musée
du Louvre, AO 20 127, © Photo RMN / Philippe Bernard.

Stele representing the goddess Ishtar, Neo-Assyrian period, eighth century BC, © R.M.N./F. Raux - S. Hubert.

Votive statuette, The Worshipper of Larsa, dedicated to the god Amurru for Hammurabi (detail), Paleo-Babylonian period,
copper and gold; H 19.6 cm x L 14.8 x W 7 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris © Photo RMN / Franck Raux.

Frank Lloyd Wright, monument dédié à Harun al Rashid pour son Plan for Greater Baghdad, 1958, Frank Lloyd Wright
Foundation à Scottsdale, Arizona, © Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Scottsdale.

Relief of glazed bricks, Striding Dragon of Marduk on the last version of the Ishtar Gate, reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, panel of glazed bricks, L 167 x H 116 cm, Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, VA Bab 4431 (“Reisedrachen”) © Olaf M. Teßmer / SMB-Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin.