BAB'YLO'NIAN ART. The style of art current in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, from the beginning of historic civilization until the time of the Median Conquest, in about 500, during a period of 4000 years or more. Its interest is 'increasing from the fact that it ap pears to represent the earliest artistic effort of mankind in many branches. antedating the cul ture of Egypt by a considerable period. The Ifabylonbm temperament was, like the Egyptian, traditional, and the changes in style were few and conditioned• largely by degrees of mastery over technical processes—over materials and implements. It was essentially a religious, priestly art, and its monuments can hardly he appreciated without a knowledge of Baby lonian literature, mythology, manners, and ells tows. So far as can be judged from the very insufficient excavations, the periods of artistic development were: (l) The pre-Sargonic era of primitive art. crude, especially in its sculpture, and with imperfect technical attainments. It ex tends to me. 2800. (2) The Age of Sargon. the golden era, distinguished for broad style with exquisite finish and perfection of technique. It lasted from B.C. 3800 to 2800. (3) After the in terval of Elamite invasion came the Age of Ilammurabbi (mc, 2200-1700), the silver era, when Babylon was the centre of Mesopo tamian civilization, when art was somewhat more stereotyped and careless. (4) The Kassite Age (from c.I700 to c.1000) with gradual com plete decadence under a semi-barbarous dynasty, with loss of all reality and life, and final sub servience to Assyrian art. (5) The Renaissance, under Nebuchadnezzar, when the ancient style of the best age, that of Sargon, was reproduced as closely as possible (e.600 to 500 n.c.). The re searches and excavations that have disclosed what we know of Babylonian art are detailed under article BABYLONIA. The Louvre Museum is the only one in Europe that contains many of the larger works; other collections being eon fined to terra-cottas and carved boundary-stones (British Museum, Berlin. etc.), and to engraved
stones (Louvre, BibliothNue Nationale, Paris; British Museum; Le Cler•q collection; Metro politan Museum, New York; etc.). The Museum of Constantinople is beginning, however, to receive a number from the latest excavations of Tel-lo, Babylon, Nippur, etc. The char acteristic forms of Babylonian art are its brick architecture, with heavy masses of masonry and small vaulted interiors, with its lack of eolunins or piers or carved details, and its use of color surface decoration of faience, fresco, and hangings: its development of the industrial arts, especially of bronze casting. terra-cotta figurines, and reliefs and glyptics. or the cutting of hard and precious stones. Hitherto it is from these small objects, many thousands of wh kb have been found, more than from the few pieces of large statuary and reliefs, that the character and continuity of Babylonian sculpture can be judged. (See ti-iive•ic.) The artistic in fluence of Babylonia was widespread and strong. It is tolerably certain to have been exercised in the formation of Egyptian and Elamite art at a very early date. The comparison of the brick making of the temple-pyramids and the statuary of the two countries are among the indications tor Egypt. The few researches for pre-Median Elam prove the same thing for sculpture, but excavations have not yet gone deep enough to show what was the primitive Elamite architec ture. Then, the Babylonian conquests on the Mediterranean carried Babylonian art to Syria, even to the island of Cyprus„ and into Asia Minor among the Hittites. The Pluenicians not only copied it but carried it westward. Con sidering, that Assyrian art. also, was substan tially a branch of Babylonian, it is clear that Babylonian art was not only supreme throughout Western Asia, but bore directly upon North Africa and the Pelasgians and other -Egean peoples, and therefore upon early Greek art. Its influence survived it in Persia and. through it, in the later Oriental art of Parthians and Mo hammedans. Even China and India felt it.