Babylon
Myth and Reality
Supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation
13 November 2008 – 15 March 2009
Room 35
Admission charge
The city of Babylon (in modern-day Iraq) has engendered a rich
legacy in art and thought, from great paintings to contemporary
film and music. This exhibition brings together such works of
imagination with archaeological treasures from ancient Babylon, to
reveal the reality behind the legends. Babylon will
look at the famous myths and stories about the city that are
familiar to all whether they are fact or fiction: the Tower of
Babel, the Hanging Gardens, Nebuchadnezzar’s madness, the
Babylonian Captivity and the city’s infamous fall. Babylon
will show how the enduring power of the city’s reputation in all
its richness has inspired great art and works of imagination.
It will go on to examine how Babylon’s reputation lives on,
changing and evolving, influencing modern art and design concluding
with a brief look at Babylon’s recent history.
The exhibition will take a focused look at this important city
under the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar (605–562BC),
telling the story through 100 objects from stunning loans from
Paris and Berlin and the Museum’s own collection. These include
glazed brick panels from the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way at
Berlin, not seen in Britain before; together with important
cuneiform tablets that bear on the history of the period, such as
that listing subsistence rations for Jehoiachin, the exiled king of
Judah. From Paris comes the famous tablet describing the
dimensions of the ziggurat that provided the inspiration for the
Tower of Babel, and another describing the New Year celebrations
that took place in and around the Processional Way. Other loans
include a newly-excavated Stela of Nabonidus from Saudi Arabia
which exemplifies the vengeful destruction wrought on Babylonian
monuments by the later Persian administration.
Art is of equal importance to Babylon’s story, the show will
include oil paintings and prints side by side with ancient
sculptures and clay tablets. Key works include William Blake’s
Nebuchadnezzar. John Martin’s Belshazzar’s Feast,
several important sixteenth century Flemish and Dutch Tower of
Babel paintings, including one by Lucas van Valckenborch, and from
the Musée d’Orsay a newly acquired and highly revealing study by
Degas for Semiramis construisante Babylone. These works
will be presented in a new light, looking at their relationships
with the ancient sources and the new uses to which their creators
put Babylon’s history and fame.
Some Babylonian achievements are with us still. The
sixty-part division of the minute and the hour, the zodiac and
astrology and even concepts still valid in mathematics and
astronomy are all due to ancient Babylonian thinkers. The
exhibition explores these ideas and their transmission into the
modern world. Sometimes the most humble objects are the most
interesting, a narrow strip of battered Greek papyrus proves that
Greek astronomers copied their tables from Babylonian tablets.
The exhibition concludes with a brief consideration of Babylon’s
recent history. Since the First World War the ancient city has been
used as a state icon, and selected modern Iraqi material including
stamps and banknotes that make use of Babylon’s image will be on
display. Finally the exhibition will consider the physical harm
that the site of Babylon has suffered as a result of contemporary
events and war.
For further information please contact
Katrina Whenham on 020 7323 8583 or kwhenham@britishmuseum.org
Book tickets
online or telephone 020 7323 8181.
Notes to editors:
- Babylon follows related and broader exhibitions
in Paris and Berlin organised by the Réunion des musées nationaux
and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. The project has been made
possible by close scholarly collaboration and many loans
between the British Museum, the Musée du Louvre and the
Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin.
- Admission charge £8 plus a range of concessions. Tickets can be
booked
online or by telephoning 020 7323 8181. Opening hours
10.00–17.30 Sunday to Wednesday, 10.00–20.30 Thursdays and
Fridays
- An accompanying book Babylon: Myth and Reality by the
exhibition curators Irving Finkel, Michael Seymour and colleagues
will be published by British Museum Press. Available from the end
of October 2008, priced £25 softback, £40 hardback
- The exhibition will be accompanied by a full public programme.
Details are available from the press office
- To coincide with the exhibition there will be two other related
displays: Iraq’s Past Speaks to the Present (10 November
2008 – 15 March 2009), a display in Room 34 of work by living
artists from Iraq and Syria and The Wealth of Babylon (8
December 2008 – 15 March 2009), a display in Room 69a of coins
from the mint at Babylon