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1925 BABYLON ISHTAR GATE Excavation Mesopotamia Sepia Photogravure ARCHITECTURE

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Details

Title: Babylon. The Ishtar Gate after the Excavations. (plate #254, title in 5 languages; English, French, Italian, Spanish, German)
Year: 1925
Print size (inches):
9.2 x 12
Image size (inches): 6.2 x 8.3
Print size (cm): 23.5 x 30.6
Image size (cm): 15.8 x 21.4
Provenance:  Picturesque Palestine Arabia And Syria
Verso:  Photogravure print
Publisher:
  Brentano's Publishers: New York



Description
     


This high quality 90 year old sepia photogravure plate comes from a collection of fine art photography by Karl Grober and others, published by Brentano's Publishing in 1925. Please note that there is a gravure on the reverse as well. Very good condition, ready for framing! Free USA shipping.

A photogravure, or "gravure", is a photographic image produced from a copper engraving plate. The process is rarely used today due to the high costs involved, but it produces prints which have the subtlety of a photograph and the art quality of a lithograph.


The Ishtar Gate (Arabic: بوابة عشتار‎, Persian: دروازه ایشتار‎) was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. It was excavated in the early 20th century and a reconstruction using original bricks is now shown in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin.

Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the gate was constructed using glazed brick with alternating rows of bas-relief mušḫuššu (dragons) and aurochs, symbolizing the gods Marduk and Adad respectively.

The roof and doors of the gate were of cedar, according to the dedication plaque. The gate was covered in lapis lazuli, a deep-blue semi-precious stone that was revered in antiquity due to its vibrancy. These blue glazed bricks would have given the façade a jewel-like shine. Through the gate ran the Processional Way, which was lined with walls showing about 120 lions, bulls, dragons and flowers on enameled yellow and black glazed bricks, symbolizing the goddess Ishtar. The gate itself depicted only gods and goddesses; these included Ishtar, Adad and Marduk. During celebrations of the New Year, statues of the deities were paraded through the gate and down the Processional Way.

The gate, being part of the Walls of Babylon, was considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. It was replaced on that list by the Lighthouse of Alexandria from the third century BC.





 IC07 110