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Object Type
Museum number: Mm,10.6
Title: Object: The Fall of Babylon
Description: Panorama of a vast city with figures under attack and in despair; in left foreground Belshazzar is betrayed and murdered by his courtiers while the battle for the city rages below; the Tower of Babel struck by lightning in the centre background; proof before letters. 1831 Mezzotint with etching
Producer name
School/style
Production date: 1831
Materials
Technique: mezzotint; etching
Dimensions: Height: 464 millimetres; Width: 719 millimetres
Curator's comments: See A. Griffiths (ed.), 'Landmarks in Print Collecting, Connoisseurs and Donors at the British Museum since 1753', BM, 1996, cat. 60. It is based on a painting exhibited at the British Institution in 1819, and now in an Italian private collection. With no Mesopotamian archaeology or texts to work from, Martin turned to Egyptian and Indian architecture and to the descriptions of ancient Greek authors for his inspiration, as with the Hanging Gardens shown to the right of the scene.(Babylon Myth & Reality 2008, exhibition at British Museum)
Bibliographic references
Location: Not on display
Exhibition history: 1996 Apr-Jun, Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Landmarks in Print Collecting 1996 Jul-Sep, LA, Huntington Library and AG, Landmarks in Print Collecting 1996, Oct-Dec, Baltimore, Museum of Arts, Landmarks in Print Collecting 1997 Jan-Apr, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Landmarks in Print Collecting 2002 Apr-Jun, Paris, Cité de la Musique, L'Invention du Sentiment 2003/4 Sep-Jan, Tarragona, Sala Tarragona, Masters of Printmaking from BM 2004 Feb-Apr, Palma, Fundacio 'la Caixa', Masters of Printmaking from BM 2004 Apr-Jul, Lleida, Fundacio 'la Caixa', Masters of Printmaking from BM 2008/9 Nov-Mar, BM, G35, Babylon: Myth and Truth
Associated places: Topographic representation of: Babylon
Associated titles
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1833
Acquisition notes: J T Smith, the Keeper of Prints and Drawings, reported in January 1833 the gift by John Martin of 16 of his own prints and accompanying text (Mm,8.1 to 10; Mm,9; and Mm,10.1 to 6).
Department: Prints and Drawings
Registration number: Mm,10.6

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