Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
A Wonder to Behold: Craftsmanship and the Creation of Babylon's Ishtar Gate

A Wonder to Behold: Craftsmanship and the Creation of Babylon's Ishtar Gate

Amrhein, Anastasia
Fitzgerald, Clare
Knott, Elizabeth

Hardcover

Series: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World Exhibition Catalogs

Art HistoryArchaeologyArchitecture History

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 0691200157
ISBN13: 9780691200156
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: Dec 10 2019
Pages: 186
Weight: 2.60
Height: 0.90 Width: 9.30 Depth: 10.70
Language: English

An in-depth and beautifully illustrated look at one of the most revered works of antiquity, the Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon

In the ancient Near East, expert craftspeople were more than technicians: they numbered among those special members of society who could access the divine. While the artisans' names are largely unknown today, their legacy remains in the form of spectacular artworks and monuments. One of the most celebrated works of antiquity--Babylon's Ishtar Gate and its affiliated Processional Way--featured a dazzling array of colorful beasts assembled from molded, baked, and glazed bricks. Such an awe-inspiring structure demanded the highest level of craft; each animal was created from dozens of bricks that interlocked like a jigsaw. Yet this display of technical and artistic skill also served a ritual purpose, since the Gate provided a divinely protected entrance to the sacred inner city of Babylon.

A Wonder to Behold explores ancient Near Eastern ideas about the transformative power of materials and craftsmanship as they relate to the Ishtar Gate. This beautifully illustrated catalogue accompanies an exhibition at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. Essays by archaeologists, art historians, curators, conservators, and text specialists examine a wide variety of artifacts from major American and European institutions.

Contributors include Anastasia Amrhein, Heather Baker, Jean-François de Lapérouse, Eduardo Escobar, Anja Fügert, Sarah Graff, Helen Gries, Elizabeth Knott, Katherine Larson, Beate Pongratz-Leisten, Shiyanthi Thavapalan, and May-Sarah Ze in.

Distributed for the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University

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