The Fall of Babylon.

Important, large mezzotint by John Martin (1789-1854) of the fall of Babylon showing Cyrus the Great defeating the Chaldean army. At left foreground Belshazzar betrayed and murdered by his courtiers while the battle for the city rages below; the Tower of Babel struck by lightning.

The final state, with the printed title at right of the lower margin.

John Martin first interpreted the biblical scene of the destruction of Babylon in a huge painting exhibited at the British Institution in 1819.He was keen to make prints after his paintings, as a ‘means which would enable the public to see my productions, and give me a chance of being remunerated for my labours‘. Martin did not see his prints just as commercial reproductions, but as works of art in their own right. He took personal responsibility for every stage of print production. He even inked his own plates, a job which was normally left to specialist printers. The mezzotint was the ideal medium for creating painterly effects. Using the very difficult mezzotint technique Martin was able to create dramatic chiaroscuro (light and shade),  for his apocalyptic interpretation of this biblical scene. The eccentric, English dilettante, William Beckford wrote:’ I have been three times running to the exhibition … to admire ‘The Capture of Babylon’ by Martin. He adds the greatest distinction to contemporary art. Oh, what a sublime thing.’

Bible. O.T. Isaiah 13-14. Jeremiah 50-1. A large green serpent is coiled around a pillar in the centre. It may be the serpent/dragon mentioned in the apocryphal ‘Bel and the Dragon’, which was worshipped as divine in Babylon, and which Daniel killed by making it choke.

The city of Babylon began as the city of Babel, which was given its name, after God had scattered a crowded-together humanity and dispersed them across the earth by confusing their languages. It was founded by Nimrod who began many other cities in the region of Shinar, the area in which Babel was being built. At one point Shinar was later renamed “Babylonia” to reflect the influence of the city on the surrounding area. The city of Babel, was constructed out of bricks instead of stone, and tar rather than mortar, which were different construction materials than most buildings of the time. In Babel a Tower was being constructed, for the purpose of giving honour to the city’s builders, and to keep the people from spreading across the Earth. At one point the city was renamed from “Babel” (referring to confusion of languages) to Babylon. Babylon was the subject of many prophecies in the Bible, including some by Jeremiah and Isaiah. Babylon is prophesied by Jeremiah that it would rule over the land of Judah for a period of 70 years. He also said that this subjugation would include an exile that would end at the end of that 70-year period. The neo-Babylonian empire rose to power in 612 BC with the defeat of the Assyrians at Nineveh. A few years later, in 609 BC, the Babylonians captured and killed the last Assyrian king. Seventy years later, in 539 BC, the neo-Babylonian empire fell to Cyrus and his invading army of Medes and Persians.