Artistic culture and art of ancient Sumer briefly. Sumerian culture, the first civilization on Earth

The development of the architectural thought of the Sumerians is most clearly traced by how the external appearance of the temples changes. In the Sumerian language, the words "house" and "temple" sound the same, so the ancient Sumerians did not share the concepts of "build a house" and "build a temple." God is the owner of all the riches of the city, his master, mortals are only his unworthy servants. The temple is the dwelling of God, it should become a testament to his power, strength, military prowess. In the center of the city, on a high platform, a monumental and majestic structure was erected - a house, the dwelling of the gods - a temple, stairs or ramps led to it from both sides.

Unfortunately, from the temples of the most ancient buildings, only ruins have survived to this day, according to which it is almost impossible to restore the internal structure and decoration of religious buildings. The reason for this is the humid, damp climate of Mesopotamia and the absence of any durable building material other than clay.

In ancient Mesopotamia, all buildings were built of brick, which was formed from raw clay mixed with reeds. Such buildings required annual restoration and repair and were extremely short-lived. Only from ancient Sumerian texts do we learn that in early temples the sanctuary was moved to the edge of the platform on which the temple was erected. The center of the sanctuary, its sacred place, where sacraments and rituals were performed, was the throne of God. He required special care and attention. The statue of the deity, in whose honor the temple was erected, was located in the depths of the sanctuary. She, too, had to be carefully taken care of. Probably, the interior of the temple was covered with paintings, but they were destroyed by the humid climate of Mesopotamia. At the beginning of the III century BC. the uninitiated were no longer allowed into the sanctuary and its open courtyard. At the end of the 3rd century BC, another type of temple building appeared in Ancient Sumer - a ziggurat.

It is a multi-stage tower, the “floors” of which look like pyramids or parallelepipeds tapering upwards, their number could reach up to seven. On the site of the ancient city of Ur, archaeologists discovered a temple complex built by the king Ur-Nammu from the III dynasty of Ur. This is the best preserved Sumerian ziggurat that has survived to this day.

It is a monumental three-story brick building, over 20m high. The lower tier of the temple has the shape of a truncated pyramid, the base area of ​​which is more than 200m, the height is 15m. Its sloping surfaces are dissected by flat niches, which hide the impression of heaviness and massiveness of the building. The two upper tiers of the temple are relatively low. Three staircases lead to the first tier - a central staircase and two side stairs that converge at the top. On the upper platform there is a brick superstructure and the main place of the temple is its sanctuary. Raw brick served as the building material for this building, but for each tier it underwent different processing, which gave the brick terraces of the ziggurat a different color. The foundation of the temple was built of brick with bituminous coating, so the lower tier is black. The middle tier of burnt bricks is red. And the topmost "floor" is whitewashed.

Inside the ziggurats were many rooms. Here were the sacred chambers of the god and goddess, as well as the premises where their servants lived - priests and temple workers.
Scientists express several versions of the emergence of multi-tiered temples. One possible reason is the fragility of the Sumerian temples, built of mud brick. They required constant renewal and reconstruction. The place of the throne of God for the Sumerians was sacred. It needed to be preserved, so the renovated parts of the temple were erected on the site of the former one. The new tier towered over the old platform. The number of such updates, and accordingly the temple platforms could reach up to seven. It is also suggested that the construction of multi-tiered temples reflects the desire of the Sumerians to approach the upper world, as the bearer of a higher mind, and has some astral meaning. And the number of platforms - seven corresponds to the number of luminaries known to the Sumerians.

The Sumerians built temples carefully and thoughtfully, but residential buildings for people did not differ in special architectural delights. Basically, these were rectangular buildings, all of the same raw brick. Houses were built without windows, the only source of light was the doorway. But in most buildings there was a sewerage system. There was no planning of developments, houses were built haphazardly, so often narrow crooked streets ended in dead ends. Each residential building was usually surrounded by an adobe wall. The same wall, but much thicker, was built around the settlement. According to legend, the very first settlement that surrounded itself with a wall, thereby assigning itself the status of a “city”, was ancient Uruk. The ancient city remained forever in the Akkadian epic "Uruk Fenced".

Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia) - an area in the middle and lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (in Western or Western Asia). One of the oldest centers of civilization.

Mesopotamia is the area only between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and Mesopotamia includes the territories adjacent to the rivers.

Both rivers are to Mesopotamia what the fertile Nile is to Egypt. From March to September, they overflow, carrying powerful streams of water from the mountains, and moisten the earth, dotted with artificial irrigation channels. The fabulously fertile lands of Mesopotamia already in 4 thousand BC. were inhabited by various tribes.
Most of the inhabitants of the south were Sumerians, and the north were Akkadians. The Sumerian tribes came from the southern part of Central Europe. They were not natives. The southern part of Mesopotamia was very swampy.
Mesopotamia was inhabited by various peoples and was not protected from invasions by impenetrable sands, like Egypt. Here are the city-states. The peoples who were at war with each other created several cultures, but still there are common features.

Bronze Age in the Middle East

The ziggurat at Ur is a monument of Sumerian Bronze Age architecture.
In the Middle East, the following dates correspond to 3 periods (the dates are very approximate):
1. Early Bronze Age (3500-2000 BC)
2. Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600 BC)
3. Late Bronze Age (1600-1200 BC)
Each major period can be divided into shorter sub-categories: as an example, RBV I, RBV II, SBV IIa, etc.
The Bronze Age in the Middle East began in Anatolia (modern Turkey), the mountains of the Anatolian Highlands had rich deposits of copper and tin. Copper was also mined in Cyprus, ancient Egypt, Israel, Iran and around the Persian Gulf. Copper was commonly mixed with arsenic, yet the region's growing demand for tin led to the creation of trade routes from Anatolia. Also, by sea routes, copper was imported to Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
The early Bronze Age is characterized by urbanization and the emergence of city-states, as well as the emergence of writing (Uruk, fourth millennium BC). In the Middle Bronze Age, there was a significant balance of power in the region, (Amorites, Hittites, Hurrians, Hyksos and possibly Israelites).
The Late Bronze Age is characterized by competition between the powerful states of the region and their vassals (Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Hittites, Mitannians). Extensive contacts were established with the Aegean civilization (Achaeans), in which copper played an important role. The Bronze Age in the Middle East ended with a historical phenomenon, which among professionals is commonly called the bronze collapse. This phenomenon affected the entire Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East.
Iron appeared in the Middle East, and also in Anatolia already in the Late Bronze Age. The entry into force of the Iron Age was marked more by political motives than by a breakthrough in the field of metallurgy.

periodization

1. Art of Sumer. 5 thousand - 2400 BC
2. Sumero-Akkadian art. 2400 - 1997 BC.
3. Art of Ancient Babylon (Old Babylonian period). Beginning 2 thousand - before the beginning. 1 thousand BC
4. Art of Assyria. early 1 thousand - con. 7th c. BC. (605 BC - destroyed by Media and Babylonia). Period of highest power: 2nd half. 8 - 1 floor. 7th c. BC.
5. Art of New Babylon. Kon. 7th c. - 6th c. BC. In 539 BC conquered by the Persians.

Religion
Due to the constant transfer of power from city to city, there was no dream of extending the blessings of life in the dead world. The fierce struggle without mercy for the vanquished gave rise to the worldview that death is inevitable and terrible. Art reflects thoughts not about the afterlife, but about the present - the struggle for power, life, depending on the will of higher powers.
Writing is cuneiform. The oldest Sumerian epic is about the brave Gilgamesh.

Art of Sumer

5 thousand - 2400 BC

Sumerian cities: Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Kish, etc.
All ancient civilizations began with ceramic cultures. Why ceramic? Dishes were needed.
In 5 thousand BC. already had pets.

Ceramics. The cruciform shape is formed by 4 naked female figures with flowing hair - the swastika (existed from 6 thousand BC). Symbolizes: the sun, stars, infinity, forming a Maltese cross.
Chess fields are mountains.

In the middle of the 4th millennium BC, during the rise of the city of Uruk, a frame was invented for raw bricks, which were not fired, but dried in the sun. The construction of rectangular temples began. The main rooms were surrounded by utility rooms.
Features of the architecture of Mesopotamia are largely due to natural conditions. There was no forest and stone in this area, so raw brick became the main building material. Even temples and palaces were built from mud. Sometimes the buildings were faced with baked bricks, finished with imported stone and wood. Reeds were commonly used for huts and outbuildings.

Ser. 4 thousand BC (Gilgamesh Time)
It was whitewashed with lime - hence the name.

The temple was the main city building. It was erected in the center of the city on a platform rammed from clay, to which ramps led from two sides.
Flat protrusions-blades kept from shedding and decorated the surface of the walls.
The sanctuary - the god's house - was moved to the edge of the platform and had an inner open courtyard.

Inside, the temple was richly decorated with mother-of-pearl, a mosaic of multi-colored (red, black, white) nails driven into the mud.

At the turn of 4 - 3 thousand BC. the priesthood is allocated to a separate caste, the right to be a priest is inherited. In 3 thousand BC. the division of classes intensifies.

Alabaster. H - 19 cm. Head of the granaries of the city of Mari. Always pray for grace.
It seems like childhood and primitivism, but it fulfills all social and religious tasks. The transmission system of ethnic features: a large forehead, narrow lips. Closed hands - a request for propitiation.
Eye inlay. Shoulders, beard, skirt - different textures of materials.

Limestone, apsidian eyes. God the Father, the all-seeing eye.
Luxurious vegetation is a sign of fertility (the ability to produce all living things).

, his wife. Statues were placed in temples on a step along the walls.

Mastery of decorative and applied things

Harp from the royal tomb at Ur. About 2600 BC

Harp resonator from the royal tomb at Ur. Gold and lapis lazuli. The mighty bull's head is magnificent.

Animals are endowed with human traits. A donkey plays the harp, a dancing bear… monumentality + jewelery subtlety.

Sumero-Akkadian art

2400 - 1997 BC.

OK. 2400 BC Akkadian king Sargon the Ancient united Sumer, all of Mesopotamia and Elam. The center of the first major state of Mesopotamia (Middle Asia) was the city of Akkad, located in the northern part of the South Mesopotamia.

The board becomes autocratic, the temple lands turn into royal ones.

Head of Sargon the Ancient (Akkadian). 23rd century BC.
Rough domineering personality.

Epic in stone. Rhythmic ascent to the mountain of royal soldiers.
Linear narration.
Clarity of the composition.
The pride of triumph over the enemy.
There are only stars above the giant figure of the king.

City of Lagash (Sumerian lands)

In the 22nd century BC. the ruler of the city and the priest of Gudea develops rapid construction.
Due to the fragility of raw brick, the buildings have not been preserved.
More than a dozen stone sculptures were found in the city temple. They are carved from diorite almost life-size.
For the first time in the history of Mesopotamia, they were created monumental, up to two meters, carefully polished.
Statics and frontal staging of figures, their general massiveness. The Sumerians knew how to convey the greatness and dignity of a person with stingy, but expressive means.

City of Ur

As in other cities, the center of Ur was a temple - a ziggurat.
A ziggurat is a tall tower surrounded by projecting terraces and giving the impression of several towers decreasing in volume.
The alternation was emphasized by coloring:
- The lower terrace was painted with black bitumen,
- the second one is lined with burnt red brick,
- the third was whitewashed.
The ledges of the ziggurat were later made. The landscaping of the terraces gave brightness and picturesqueness. The upper tower, to which a high staircase led, was sometimes crowned with a gilded dome.

The temple is the home of the deity who owns the city. He was supposed to live at the top. Therefore, in ziggurats they made from 3 to 7 tracks.
In addition to rituals, the priests made astronomical observations from the ziggurat.

The majestic ziggurat in Ur, rising above the buildings, expressed the idea of ​​the power of the gods and the deified king.

Art of Ancient Babylon

(Old Babylonian period)
Early 2 thousand - before the beginning. 1 thousand BC

The period of the highest flourishing of the Old Babylonian civilization was under King Hamurappi (18th century BC).
And in the place where the rivers converged most of all, on the left bank of the Euphrates stood the city of Babylon.
Under King Hammurabi (1792 - 1750 BC), the city united all areas of Sumer and Akkad under its leadership. The glory of Babylon and its king thundered throughout the world.
The greatest merit of Hammurabi was the creation of a code of laws - the constitution.

. A high relief decorated a pillar on which the laws were written.
Monumentality and picturesqueness. The sun god Shamash presents the king with symbols of power (a wand and a magic ring).

Art of Assyria

early 1 thousand - con. 7th c. BC.

The Assyrians transformed the religion, culture and art of Babylonia, significantly coarsening them, but also endowing them with a new pathos of power, as the Romans did with the Greeks. They spread their power from the Sinai Peninsula to Armenia. Even Egypt itself was conquered for a short time by them.
In art - the pathos of strength, the glorification of the power, victory and conquest of the Assyrian rulers.
Period of highest power: 2nd half. 8 - 1 floor. 7th c. BC.

. 2nd floor 8th c. BC. Alabaster.
Majestic and fantastic. Rising at the entrance to the palace. Bulls in tiaras with arrogant human faces, beard curls are completely twisted, 5 heavy, trampling hooves all under them. Protected the royal palaces. On the side - a frightening heaviness of movement, in front - formidable peace.

The Assyrian state is characterized not by cult, but by secular grandiose palace architecture and secular scenes in interior paintings and reliefs.

Relief from the palace of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh. Ser. 7th c. BC.

Art of New Babylon

Kon. 7th c. - 6th c. BC. In 539 BC

In 605 BC Assyria was conquered and destroyed by Media and Babylonia. Tower of Babel. Reconstruction. The Tower of Babel, famous in the Bible, was a seven-tiered ziggurat 90 meters high. It was built under King Nimrod. Assyrian architect Aradahdeshu.
The sanctuary was dedicated to the main god Marduk. It was most likely crowned with gilded horns. The shrine gleamed with blue-violet glazed bricks.
According to the descriptions of Herodotus, a statue of a deity made of gold weighing approx. 2.5 tons

16th century Dutch Renaissance painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder. tower of babel. 1563

The famous Gardens of Queen Semiramis date back to the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar. Archaeologists have found a system of wells. Slaves supplied water to the terraces, turning a huge wheel. During the time of King Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon was an impregnable stronghold. The walls of the city with countless towers are so large that two chariots pulled by four horses could freely pass through them.

The walls of the road in front of the Ishtar Gate were lined with blue glazed bricks and decorated with a relief frieze.

Decorated with symbolic images of the god Marduk - dragons.

A procession of lions, bulls and dragons was depicted.

On the whole, the art of New Babylon did not create something new and original, but repeated with greater splendor, sometimes even excessive, the models created by ancient Babylonia and Assyria.

Achimenid dynasty
Persian or Iranian Empire

539 - 330 BC.

First of all, it is palace and court art.
Palace ensembles in Pasargadae, Persepolis, Susa.

It developed in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and existed from the 4th millennium BC. until the middle of the VI century. BC. Unlike the Egyptian culture of Mesopotamia, it was not homogeneous, it was formed in the process of repeated interpenetration of several ethnic groups and peoples, and therefore was multilayer.

The main inhabitants of Mesopotamia were Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Chaldeans in the south: Assyrians, Hurrians and Arameans in the north. The cultures of Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria reached the greatest development and importance.

The origin of the Sumerian ethnos is still a mystery. It is only known that in the IV millennium BC. the southern part of Mesopotamia is inhabited by the Sumerians and lay the foundations for the entire subsequent civilization of this region. Like the Egyptian, this civilization was river. By the beginning of the III millennium BC. in the south of Mesopotamia, several city-states appear, the main of which are Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Jlapca, etc. They alternately play a leading role in uniting the country.

The history of Sumer knew several ups and downs. XXIV-XXIII centuries deserve special mention. BC when the elevation occurs Semitic city of Akkad north of Sumer. Under the reign of Sargon the Ancient, Akkad succeeded in subordinating all Sumer to his power. Akkadian replaces Sumerian and becomes the main language throughout Mesopotamia. Semitic art also has a great influence on the entire region. In general, the significance of the Akkadian period in the history of Sumer turned out to be so significant that some authors call the entire culture of this period Sumero-Akkadian.

Culture of Sumer

The basis of the economy of Sumer was agriculture with a developed irrigation system. Hence it is clear why one of the main monuments of Sumerian literature was the "Agricultural Almanac", containing instructions on farming - how to maintain soil fertility and avoid salinization. It was also important cattle breeding. metallurgy. Already at the beginning of the III millennium BC. the Sumerians began to manufacture bronze tools, and at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. entered the Iron Age. From the middle of the III millennium BC. potter's wheel is used in the production of dishes. Other crafts are successfully developing - weaving, stone-cutting, blacksmithing. Extensive trade and exchange takes place both between the Sumerian cities and with other countries - Egypt, Iran. India, the states of Asia Minor.

It should be emphasized the importance Sumerian writing. The cuneiform script invented by the Sumerians turned out to be the most successful and effective. Improved in the II millennium BC. Phoenicians, it formed the basis of almost all modern alphabets.

System religious and mythological ideas and cults Sumer partly echoes the Egyptian. In particular, it also contains the myth of a dying and resurrecting god, which is the god Dumuzi. As in Egypt, the ruler of the city-state was declared a descendant of a god and was perceived as an earthly god. At the same time, there were notable differences between the Sumerian and Egyptian systems. So, among the Sumerians, the funeral cult, belief in the afterlife did not acquire great importance. Equally, the priests among the Sumerians did not become a special layer that played a huge role in public life. In general, the Sumerian system of religious beliefs seems to be less complex.

As a rule, each city-state had its own patron god. However, there were gods who were revered throughout Mesopotamia. Behind them stood those forces of nature, the significance of which for agriculture was especially great - sky, earth and water. These were the sky god An, the earth god Enlil and the water god Enki. Some gods were associated with individual stars or constellations. It is noteworthy that in Sumerian writing, the pictogram of a star meant the concept of "god". Of great importance in the Sumerian religion was the mother goddess, the patroness of agriculture, fertility and childbearing. There were several such goddesses, one of them was the goddess Inanna. patroness of the city of Uruk. Some myths of the Sumerians - about the creation of the world, the Flood - had a strong influence on the mythology of other peoples, including Christian ones.

In Sumer, the leading art was architecture. Unlike the Egyptians, the Sumerians did not know stone construction and all structures were created from raw brick. Due to the swampy terrain, buildings were erected on artificial platforms - embankments. From the middle of the III millennium BC. The Sumerians were the first to widely use arches and vaults in construction.

The first architectural monuments were two temples, White and Red, discovered in Uruk (end of the 4th millennium BC) and dedicated to the main deities of the city - the god Anu and the goddess Inanna. Both temples are rectangular in plan, with ledges and niches, decorated with relief images in the "Egyptian style". Another significant monument is the small temple of the goddess of fertility Ninhursag in Ur (XXVI century BC). It was built using the same architectural forms, but decorated not only with relief but also with round sculpture. In the niches of the walls there were copper figurines of walking gobies, and on the friezes there were high reliefs of lying gobies. At the entrance to the temple there are two statues of lions made of wood. All this made the temple festive and elegant.

In Sumer, a peculiar type of cult building developed - a ziggurag, which was a stepped, rectangular in plan tower. On the upper platform of the ziggurat there was usually a small temple - "the dwelling of the god." The ziggurat for thousands of years played approximately the same role as the Egyptian pyramid, but unlike the latter, it was not an afterlife temple. The most famous was the ziggurat (“temple-mountain”) in Ur (XXII-XXI centuries BC), which was part of a complex of two large temples and a palace and had three platforms: black, red and white. Only the lower, black platform has survived, but even in this form, the ziggurat makes a grandiose impression.

Sculpture in Sumer was less developed than architecture. As a rule, it had a cult, "initiatory" character: the believer placed a figurine made to his order, most often small in size, in the temple, which, as it were, was praying for his fate. The person was depicted conditionally, schematically and abstractly. without respect for proportions and without a portrait resemblance to the model, often in the pose of a prayer. An example is a female figurine (26 cm) from Lagash, which has mostly common ethnic features.

In the Akkadian period, sculpture changes significantly: it becomes more realistic, acquires individual features. The most famous masterpiece of this period is the copper head of Sargon the Ancient (XXIII century BC), which perfectly conveys the unique traits of the king's character: courage, will, severity. This rare expressive work is almost no different from modern ones.

Sumerian reached a high level literature. In addition to the above-mentioned "Agricultural Almanac", the most significant literary monument was the Epic of Gilgamesh. This epic poem tells about a man who saw everything, experienced everything, knew everything and who was close to unraveling the mystery of immortality.

By the end of the III millennium BC. Sumer gradually falls into decline, and eventually conquered by Babylonia.

Babylonia

Its history is divided into two periods: the Ancient, covering the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, and the New, falling in the middle of the 1st millennium BC.

Ancient Babylonia reaches its highest rise under the king Hammurabi(1792-1750 BC). Two significant monuments remain from his time. The first of them - Laws of Hammurabi became the most outstanding monument of ancient Eastern legal thought. 282 articles of the Code of Law cover almost all aspects of the life of Babylonian society and constitute civil, criminal and administrative law. The second monument is a basalt pillar (2 m), which depicts King Hammurabi himself, sitting in front of Shamash, the god of the sun and justice, as well as a part of the text of the famous codex.

New Babylonia reached its highest peak under the king Nebuchadnezzar(605-562 BC). Under him were built famous "Hanging Gardens of Babylon", become one of the seven wonders of the world. They can be called a grandiose monument of love, since they were presented by the king to his beloved wife in order to alleviate her longing for the mountains and gardens of her homeland.

No less famous monument is also Tower of Babel. It was the highest ziggurat in Mesopotamia (90 m), consisting of several towers stacked on top of each other, on the top of which was the saint and she of Marduk, the main god of the Babylonians. Seeing the tower, Herodotus was shocked by its greatness. She is mentioned in the Bible. When the Persians conquered Babylonia (VI century BC), they destroyed Babylon and all the monuments that were in it.

The achievements of Babylonia deserve special mention. gastronomy and mathematics. The Babylonian stargazers calculated with amazing accuracy the time of the Moon's revolution around the Earth, compiled a solar calendar and a map of the starry sky. The names of the five planets and twelve constellations of the solar system are of Babylonian origin. Astrologers gave people astrology and horoscopes. Even more impressive were the successes of mathematicians. They laid the foundations of arithmetic and geometry, developed a “positional system”, where the numerical value of a sign depends on its “position”, knew how to square a power and extract a square root, created geometric formulas for measuring land.

Assyria

The third powerful power of Mesopotamia - Assyria - arose in the 3rd millennium BC, but reached its peak in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. Assyria was poor in resources but rose to prominence due to its geographic location. She found herself at the crossroads of caravan routes, and trade made her rich and great. The capitals of Assyria were successively Ashur, Calah and Nineveh. By the XIII century. BC. it became the most powerful empire in the entire Middle East.

In the artistic culture of Assyria - as in the whole Mesopotamia - the leading art was architecture. The most significant architectural monuments were the palace complex of King Sargon II in Dur-Sharrukin and the palace of Ashur-banapala in Nineveh.

The Assyrian reliefs, decorating the palace premises, the plots of which were scenes from royal life: religious ceremonies, hunting, military events.

One of the best examples of Assyrian reliefs is the “Great Lion Hunt” from the palace of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, where the scene depicting the wounded, dying and killed lions is filled with deep drama, sharp dynamics and vivid expression.

In the 7th century BC. the last ruler of Assyria, Ashur-banapap, created in Nineveh a magnificent library, containing more than 25 thousand clay cuneiform tablets. The library has become the largest in the entire Middle East. It contained documents that in one way or another concerned the entire Mesopotamia. Among them was kept the above-mentioned "Epic of Gilgamesh".

Mesopotamia, like Egypt, has become a real cradle of human culture and civilization. Sumerian cuneiform and Babylonian astronomy and mathematics are already enough to speak of the exceptional significance of Mesopotamian culture.

ART OF SUMER AND AKKAD

ART

OLD BABYLON

ART OF THE HITTITES AND HURRITS

ASSYRIAN ART

ART

NEO-BABYLON

ART OF THE ACHEMENELIAN EMPIRE

PARTHIAN ART

ART OF THE SASANID EMPIRE

The territory of Western Asia includes very different natural zones: Mesopotamia - the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, which the Greeks called Mesopotamia, the peninsula of Asia Minor and the mountainous regions adjacent to it, the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the Iranian and Armenian highlands. The peoples who inhabited this vast region in antiquity were among the first in the world to found cities and states, invented the wheel, coins and writing, created wonderful works of art.

The art of the ancient peoples of Western Asia may seem complex and mysterious: plots, methods of depicting a person or an event, ideas about space and time were completely different then than now. Any image contained an additional meaning that went beyond the scope of the plot. Behind each character of a wall painting or sculpture was a system of abstract concepts - good and evil, life and death, etc. To express this, the masters resorted to the language of symbols; it is not easy for a modern person to understand it: Symbolism is filled not only with links from the life of the gods, but also with images of historical events: they were understood as a report of a person to the gods for their deeds.

The history of art in the countries of ancient Western Asia, which began at the turn of the IV-III millennium BC. e. in the Southern Mesopotamia, covers a huge period - several millennia.

ART OF SUMER AND AKKAD

The Sumerians and Akkadians are two ancient peoples who created a unique historical and cultural image of Mesopotamia IV-III millennia BC. e. There is no exact information about the origin of the Shumers. It is only known that they appeared in southern Mesopotamia no later than the 4th millennium BC. e. Having laid a network of canals from the Euphrates River, they irrigated the barren lands and built the cities of Ur, Uruk, Nippur, Lagash, etc. on them. Each Sumerian city was a separate state with its own ruler and army.

The Sumerians also created a unique form of writing - cuneiform.

Wedge-shaped signs were squeezed out with sharp sticks on wet clay tablets, which were then dried or burned on fire. Sumerian writing captured laws, knowledge, religious ideas and myths.

Very few architectural monuments of the Sumer era have survived, since in Mesopotamia there was neither wood nor stone suitable for construction; most of the buildings were erected from a less durable material - unbaked bricks. The most significant buildings that have survived to this day (in small fragments) are the White Temple and the Red Building in Uruk (3200-3000 BC). The Sumerian temple was usually built on a rammed

clay platform, which protected the building from floods. Long stairs or ramps (sloping inclined platforms) led to it. The walls of the platform, as well as the walls of the temple, were painted, trimmed with mosaics, decorated with niches and vertical rectangular ledges - shoulder blades. Raised above the residential part of the city, the temple reminded people of the inextricable connection between Heaven and Earth. The temple, a low thick-walled rectangular building with a courtyard, did not have a trench. On one side of the courtyard was placed a statue of a deity, on the other - a table for sacrifices. Light penetrated the premises through openings under flat roofs and high arched entrances. The ceilings were usually supported by beams, but vaults and domes were also used. According to the same principle, palaces and ordinary residential buildings were built.

Beautiful examples of Sumerian sculpture, created at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, have survived to our time. e. The most widespread type of sculpture was adora "nt(from lat."adore" - "worship"), which was a statue of a praying person - a figure of a person sitting or standing with arms folded on his chest, which was presented to the temple. The huge eyes of the adorants were especially carefully executed; they were often encrusted. Sumerian sculpture, unlike, for example, ancient Egyptian, was never given a portrait resemblance; its main feature is the conventionality of the image.

The walls of the Sumerian temples were decorated with reliefs that told both about historical events in the life of the city (military campaign, laying the foundation of a temple) and about everyday affairs (milking cows, churning butter from milk, etc.). The relief consisted of several tiers-owls. Events unfolded in front of the viewer sequentially from tier to tier. All the characters were the same height - only the king

always depicted larger than others. An example of a Sumerian relief is the stele (vertical plate) of the ruler of the city of Lagash, Eannatum (circa 2470 BC), which is dedicated to his victory over the city of Umma.

A special place in the Sumerian visual heritage belongs to glyptic - carving on precious or semi-precious stone. Until our time, many Sumerian carved seals in the form of a cylinder have been preserved. The seals were rolled over a clay surface and received an impression - a miniature relief with a large number of characters and a clear, carefully built composition. Most of the plots depicted on the prints are dedicated to the confrontation of various animals or fantastic creatures. For the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, the seal was not just a sign of property, but an object with magical powers. The seals were kept as talismans, given to temples, placed in burial places.

At the end of the XXIV century. BC. the territory of Southern Mesopotamia was conquered by the Akkadians. Their ancestors are considered to be Semitic tribes who settled

Statue of the dignitary Ebih-Il from Mari. middle III millennium BC. e. Louvre, Paris.

* Arch, vault and dome - convex architectural structures used to cover the opening in the wall or the space between columns (arch), buildings and structures of various designs (vault, dome).

**Inlay - decoration of the surface of the product with pieces of stone, wood, metal, etc., which differ from it in color or material.

During the excavations carried out in Ur in the 20s. 20th century under the guidance of the English archaeologist Leonard Woolley, numerous burials were discovered, in which there was a myriad of valuables. The tombs were also amazed by the abundance of human remains - apparently, sacrifices. Therefore, the burials were called "royal", although they did not establish who was actually buried in them. Two boards were found here, forming, as it were, a gable roof, with images of a military campaign and a ritual feast, made using the mosaic technique - the so-called "standard from Ur". Its exact purpose is unknown.

"Standard" from the "royal" tomb in Ur. Fragment. Around 2600 BC e. British Museum, London.

Carved seal impressions from Ur. III millennium BC. e.

Stele of King Eannatum (Stela of kites). Around 2470 BC. e. Louvre, Paris.

in Central and Northern Mesopotamia in ancient times. The Akkadian king Sargon the Ancient, who was later called the Great, easily subjugated the Sumerian cities weakened by internecine wars and created the first unified state in this region - the kingdom of Sumer and Akkad, which existed until the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Sargon and his fellow tribesmen took care of the Sumerian

culture. They mastered and adapted Sumerian cuneiform for their language, preserved ancient texts and works of art. Even the religion of the Sumerians was adopted by the Akkadians, only the gods received new names.

In the Akkadian period, a new form of temple appeared - ziggurat. This is a stepped pyramid, on top of which there was a small sanctuary. The lower tiers of the ziggur

Obtaining an impression from a carved seal.

Stele of King Naramsin. XXIII in. BC uh .

The relief of the stele of the king of Akkad Naramsin tells about his victorious campaign against the mountain tribe of the Lullubeys. The master managed to convey space and movement, the volume of figures and show not only warriors, but also a mountain landscape. The relief shows the signs of the Sun and the Moon, symbolizing the deities - the patrons of royal power.

Ziggurat in Ur. Reconstruction. XXI in. BC e.

that one, as a rule, was painted black, the middle ones - red, the upper ones - white. The symbolism of the form of the ziggurat - "stairs to the sky" - is simple and understandable at all times. In the 21st century BC e. in Ur, a three-tiered ziggurat was built, the height of which was twenty-one meters. Later it was rebuilt or, increasing the number of tiers to seven.

There are very few monuments of fine art from the Akkadian period. The head cast from copper may be a portrait of Sargon the Great. The appearance of the king is full of calmness, nobility and inner strength. It is felt that the master sought to embody in sculpture the image of an ideal ruler and warrior. The silhouette of the sculpture is clear, the details are made carefully - everything testifies to the excellent mastery of the technique of working with metal and knowledge of the possibilities of this material.

In the Sumerian and Akkadian periods in Mesopotamia and other areas of Western Asia, the main areas of art (architecture and sculpture) were determined, which were further developed.

"Head of Sargon the Great" from Nineveh. XXIII in. BC e. Iraqi Museum, Baghdad.

Statue of Gudea, ruler of Lagash. XXI in. BC e. Louvre, Paris.

After the death of King Naramsin, the fallen kingdom of Sumer and Akkad was captured by the nomadic tribes of the Gutians. In some cities in the south of Sumer, it was possible to maintain independence, including Lagash. Gudea, the ruler of Lagash (circa 2080-2060 BC), became famous for the construction and restoration of temples. His statue is an outstanding work of Sumero-Akkadian sculpture.

ART OF THE OLD BABYLONAN KINGDOM

In 2003 BC. e. the kingdom of Sumer and Akkad ceased to exist after the army of neighboring Elam invaded its borders and defeated the capital of the kingdom - the city of Ur. Period from the 20th to the 17th century. BC e. called the Old Babylonian, since the most important political center of Mesopotamia at that time was Babylon. Its ruler Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), after a fierce struggle, again created a strong centralized state in this territory - Babylonia.

The Old Babylonian Era is Considered the Golden Age of Mesopotamian Literature: Scattered Tales

The stele of the Babylonian king and founder of the state Hammurabi captured the text of his two hundred and forty-seven laws written in cuneiform. This oldest known collection of laws was discovered by French archaeologists in 1901 during excavations in the city of Susa, the capital of ancient Elam.

Stele of King Hammurabi from Susa. XVIII in. BC e.

Louvre, Paris.

about gods and heroes merged into poems. For example, the epic about Gilgamesh, the semi-legendary ruler of the city of Uruk in Sumer, is widely known. Few works of fine art and architecture of that period have survived: after the death of Hammurabi, Babylonia was repeatedly attacked by nomads who destroyed many monuments.

In the ceremonial compositions depicting the solemn appearance of the king in front of the deity, traditional techniques were used: the figures of the heroes are motionless and tense, and the details of their external appearance are not developed. The basalt stele of Hammurabi, on which the texts of his laws are carved, is made in this “official” style. The stela is crowned with a relief depicting the Babylonian ruler standing in a respectful pose before Shamash, the god of the sun and justice. God gives Hammurabi the attributes of royal power.

If the work is not about gods or rulers, but about ordinary people, then the manner of depiction becomes completely different. An example of this is a small relief from Babylon, representing two women playing music: the standing one plays the lyre, and the seated one plays a percussion instrument similar to a tambourine. Their poses are graceful and natural, and their silhouettes are graceful. Such small compositions with images of musicians or dancers are the most interesting part of the Babylonian sculptural heritage.

Both styles of images were intricately combined in the murals of the palace in Mari, a large city located northwest of Babylon, and in the 18th century. BC e. conquered and destroyed by Hammurabi, Scenes from the life of the gods are strict, motionless compositions in black and white or red and brown tones. But in paintings on everyday subjects, one can also find lively poses, bright color spots, and even attempts to convey the depth of space.

Statue of a praying man (possibly King Hammurabi). 1792-1750 BC e. Louvre, Paris.

Goddess Ishtar with two priestesses. Relief from the palace in Mari. XIX-XVIII centuries BC e. Deir az-Zur Museum, Syria.

Sacrifice. Wall painting from the palace in Mari. II

ART OF THE HITTITES AND HURRITS

The states created by the Hittites (an Indo-European people) and the Hurrians (tribes of unknown origin) did not last long, but their creativity was reflected in the art of subsequent eras. The artistic vision of the surrounding world of the Hittites and the Hurrians was in many ways similar: the monuments of the Hittite and Hurrian art amaze with severity and special inner energy.

Hittite kingdom, which arose in the XVIII century. BC e., reached its peak by the XIV-XIII centuries. Military power allowed him to compete with Egypt

and Assyria. However, at the end of the XII century, BC. e. it died from the invasion of nomadic tribes - the so-called "peoples of the sea." The main territory of the Hittite kingdom - the peninsula of Asia Minor - is a vast mountain basin. Probably, the mountains for the Hittites were something more than just a habitat: it is part of their religious and artistic world. In the religion of the Hittites there was a cult of stone, they even considered the vault of heaven to be stone.

Most of the monuments of Hittite art are known from the excavations of their capital - Hattusa (now Bogazkoy in Turkey). The city was surrounded by a powerful wall with five gates, and its center was a fortress located on a rock. All buildings of the Hittites were built from large stone or clay blocks. Hittite structures are usually asymmetric, their ceilings are flat, not columns, but powerful tetrahedral pillars were used as supports. The lower part of the building (basement), as a rule, was decorated with large stone slabs - orthosta "tami, decorated with reliefs.

The careful, full of religious awe attitude of the Hittites to the stone determined the main features

Hittite sculpture: preference was given to relief, in which, more sharply than in a statue, a connection with the shape of a stone block was felt. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the art of the Hittites is that their monuments harmoniously fit into the surrounding nature and at the same time the landscape turned into a kind of “natural architecture”. Three kilometers from Hattusa, a mountain sanctuary was discovered, called Yazyly-Kaya (Painted Rocks). These are two gorges connected with each other; on their giant "walls"-rocks there are reliefs with scenes of the solemn procession of the gods. Processions of gods in the form of warriors in conical helmets armed with swords and goddesses in long robes move towards each other. In the center of the composition are the figures of the thunder god Teshub and his wife, the gods Hebat.

Not only the Hittites created shrines in the rocks. Many peoples of the Ancient East sought to turn the world around them into a grandiose temple. But because of the monumental scale and the harsh simplicity of the sculptural images, it is the Yazyly-Kaya sanctuary that makes a particularly strong impression.

Lion Gate Fortress in Hattusa. Around 1350-1250 BC e.

Lion Gate. fortress at Hattus.

Fragment. Around 1350-1250 BC e.

Very few monuments of Hurrian art have been preserved. The most significant of the Hurrian states, Mitaini, located in Central Mesopotamia, existed for about three hundred years (XVI-XIII centuries BC). Suffering in the XIV century. BC e. a crushing defeat from the Hittites, it subjugated Assyria a century later.

The Hurrians invented a special type of palace and temple building - bit hila "no(literally "the house of the gallery-yard"), a building with a complex of galleries parallel to the main facade. The entrance gallery with two towers along the edges, to which special stairs led, resembled the main city gates.

The few monuments of Hurrian sculpture - images of people, made in a conventional manner, with tense, mask-like faces - have a rather strong effect on the viewer: it seems as if some kind of force is hidden in a heavy, impenetrable mass of stone. In this one feels the kinship with the Hittite sculpture. However, the Hurrian masters, unlike the Hittites, polished the stone to a shine, and the static composition, as it were, closed in itself, was enlivened by the play of chiaroscuro on the surface of the sculpture.

Underground passage of the fortress in Hattus. Around 1350-1250 BC e.

Procession of the gods. Rock relief in Yazyly-Kaya. Fragment. XIII in. BC e.

Procession of the gods. Rock relief in Yazyly-Kaya. XIII in. BC e.

Phoenician Art

The Phoenicians settled in the XII-X centuries. BC e. from the Mediterranean coast to the Lebanese mountains, were skilled navigators, merchants and craftsmen, famous for their art in many countries of Asia Minor. Phoenician jewelers and sculptors skillfully combined the traditions of different cultures in their products and created amazing works of carved wood and ivory, gold and silver, precious stones and colored glass. The Phoenician craftsmen had no equal in terms of fineness of work, knowledge of the possibilities of the material, and a sense of form.

In the Phoenician cities - Byblos, Ugarit, Tire, Sidon - richly decorated multi-storey buildings were erected. Bronze and valuable rocks of ked-ra were used to decorate the temples. Phoenician builders quickly mastered unfamiliar work methods, and therefore received invitations from everywhere. Researchers suggest that the famous palace and temple of the ancient Jewish king Solomon in Jerusalem were built by the Phoenicians.

Winged sphinx. XII in. BC e. Collection of Borovsky, Jerusalem.

Female figures from a Phoenician temple. National Archaeological Museum, Beirut.

Carriage with protector gods. I millennium BC. e. Louvre, Paris.

First millennium BC. e. often referred to as the era of great empires. The largest states of that period - Assyria, Babylonia, Achaemenid Iran - waged continuous wars, as they sought to unite many peoples and lands under their rule. For example, the Assyrian kings called themselves the rulers of the four countries of the world, but not only they felt themselves the rulers of the world: there was a fierce struggle between the empires. However

for all the complexity of the political structure of the strongest states of ancient Western Asia, it was they who managed to preserve spiritual and cultural values ​​in the face of the destructive invasions of nomadic tribes, which in the 12th century. BC e. destroyed the Hittite kingdom and constantly threatened other peoples.

ASSYRIAN ART

The existence of Assyria - a powerful, aggressive state, whose borders stretched from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf in its heyday, people knew long before its archaeological discovery from the texts of the Bible - the holy book of Jews and Christians. The Assyrians dealt cruelly with the enemy: they destroyed cities, carried out mass executions, sold tens of thousands of people into slavery, and resettled entire nations. But at the same time, the conquerors paid great attention to the cultural heritage of the conquered countries, studying the artistic principles of foreign craftsmanship. Combining the traditions of many cultures, Assyrian art acquired a unique look.

At first glance, the Assyrians did not seek to create new forms. In their architecture, there are all previously known types of buildings: ziggurat, bit-khilani. The novelty was in relation to the architectural ensemble. The center of the palace and temple complexes was not a temple, but a palace. A new type of city appeared - a fortress city with a single strict layout. An example is Dur-Sharrukin, the residence of King Sargon II (722-705 BC). More than half of the total area of ​​the city was occupied by a palace erected on a high platform. It was surrounded by powerful walls fourteen meters high. Vaults and arches were used in the system of palace ceilings. Its front entrance was "guarded" by giant figures of fantastic guardians. shvdu - winged bulls with human faces.

Decorating the chambers in the royal palaces, the Assyrians preferred relief, creating their own style in this form of art. The main features of the Assyrian relief were formed by the 9th century. BC e.,

Shedu bull statue from the palace of King Sargon II in Dur-Sharrukin. End VIII in. BC e. Louvre, Paris.

Dur-Sharrukin. Reconstruction. 713-708 BC e.

King Sargon II. Relief from Sargon's palace II in Lur-Sharrukin. VIII in. BC e.

Wounded lioness. Relief from the palace of King Ashurbanipal in Nineveh. VII in. BC e. British Museum, London.

which dates the ensemble from the palace of King Ashurnasirapal II (883-859 BC) in Kalha. The palace was adorned with a cycle of reliefs that glorified the king as a military leader, a wise ruler, and a physically very strong person. To implement this idea, the sculptors used three groups of plots depicting war, hunting and a solemn procession with tribute. An important element of com-

Statue of King Ashurnasirapal II. 883-859 BC h. British Museum, London.

position is the text: the tight lines of cuneiform sometimes run directly across the image. Each relief has many characters, narrative details. The figures of people on the reliefs are made in a conventional, generalized style, while the appearance of animals is rendered in a naturalistic way. Sometimes the masters resorted to distortion of proportions, thereby emphasizing the drama of the situation: for example, in hunting scenes, a lion could be larger than a horse. People were most often depicted in accordance with the canon: the head, lower body, legs and one shoulder - in profile, the other shoulder - in front. Details were carefully trimmed - curls of hair, folds of clothes, individual muscles. The reliefs were painted; perhaps, initially, they were very reminiscent of wall paintings.

The complex of reliefs of the palace of Ashurnasirapal II became a model for all subsequent works of Assyrian sculpture. The most famous is the ensemble from the palace of King Ashurbanipal in Nineveh (VII century BC).

The siege of the Jewish city of Lachish by Sennacherib. Fragment of a relief from the palace of the soar in Nineveh. 701 BC e. British Museum, London.

Reliefs with hunting scenes were made with amazing skill and emotional strength, decorating the walls of the so-called Royal Room. In contrast to similar images from Kalhu, with their solemn and somewhat slow action, everything here is in rapid motion: an increase in the free space between the figures makes it possible to feel both this movement and the excitement that has engulfed all participants in the scene. The reliefs in Nineveh are naturalistic, which primarily refers to the images of animals: their appearance is anatomically correct, the poses are precise and expressive, and the agony of dying lions

MYTHICAL CHARACTERS

IN THE ART OF ANCIENT western Asia

Many works of Mesopotamian art are associated with religious and mythological subjects. Legends and poems often talk about fantastic creatures - half-humans, half-animals, constantly accompanying gods, heroes and ordinary people.

The most famous example is the "guardians" of the palace of the Assyrian king. These are she "du - winged bulls with five legs and human faces. The extra leg of these fabulous animals is made on purpose in order to create an optical effect: it seems to a person passing through the gate that a powerful guard is moving towards him and is ready at any moment to block the path of the one who brings evil.

Another character is the bull-man - one of the most popular heroes of the Sumerian and Akkadian glyptics - a creature with the head and torso of a man, bull's legs and tail. In ancient times, he was revered by pastoralists as a protector of herds from diseases and predator attacks. This is probably why he was often depicted holding a pair of lions or leopards turned upside down. Later, he was credited with the role of guardian of the possessions of various gods. It is possible that under the guise of a bull-man they represented a faithful friend and companion of the famous epic hero Gilgamesh - Enkidu, who, having a human appearance, lived part of his life in the forest, habits and behavior not differing from an animal.

Two more popular characters were considered the guardians of the domain of the sun god Utu-Shamash: a scorpion man, who, according to ancient legends, supports the vault of heaven, and a bull with a human face. However, in strength and aggressiveness, the lion-headed eagle Anzud had no equal among other monsters. He guarded the borders of the underworld and symbolized the elements that were under the auspices of the god of war Ningirsu.

* Canon - (from Greek“rule *) - a system of rules adopted in art in any historical period, in one or another artistic direction.

transmitted with rare credibility and brightness.

At the end of the 7th century BC e. Assyria was destroyed by its longtime opponents - Media and Babylonia; Nineveh,

the capital of Assyria, in 612 BC. e. was destroyed, and in 605 BC. e. in the battle near Karchemish, the remnants of the Assyrian army perished. In the art of antiquity, the traditions of Assyria, especially

ART OF URARTU

Urartu is a small but strong state that developed on the territory of the Armenian Highlands by the 9th century. BC e. The first mentions of him are found in the inscriptions of the Assyrian ruler Ashurnasirapal II. Urartu waged constant wars: first with Assyria, and later with the nomadic tribes of the Cimmerians, Scythians and Media. Between 593 and 591 BC e. Median troops captured the last Urartian fortresses and thus Urartu became part of the territory of Media, and then Achaemenid Persia.

Monuments of Urartian art are not distinguished by their originality, but they are of interest, since they originally united the artistic traditions of neighboring peoples. Powerful city-fortress Teishebaini" and Erebu "ni, discovered during excavations in the territories of Armenia, show a deep knowledge of the Hittite and Assyrian architecture by the Urartian builders. The influence of Assyria can also be traced in the surviving fragments of the monumental paintings from Erebuni, however, purely Urartian ornament is often included in the composition.

A high level of craftsmanship distinguishes the monuments of decorative and applied art, in which characters known from other cultures often appear. For example, a fantastic creature resembling an Assyrian shedu. Only “I go” to Urartu is a small bronze figurine with a face inlaid with ivory and multi-colored wings. The splendid depictions of lions on shields and jewellery, and chariot riders, whose images usually adorn arrow cases, are also inspired by images of Assyrian reliefs.

The main feature of the Urartian artistic thinking can be considered a love of color: the masters use rich, bright colors and spectacular color combinations, for example, thick red with dark blue, rich brown with brilliant gilding. The predilection for combinations of different techniques and materials within one work also shows the constant desire of the masters to find new colors for well-known images. Thanks to this, the famous deities, demons and fantastic monsters in the works from Urartu look more accessible and understandable; sometimes it seems that they are called not to frighten, but to protect a person, to attract him to themselves. Even from the military scenes, often found in the Urartian coinage, the excitement of the fight disappears, and all the viewer's attention is switched to the decorative expressiveness of the compositions. Monuments from Urartu once again demonstrate the deep cultural unity that binds different peoples of the Ancient East, often in spite of political conflicts.

Cauldron handle depicting mythical characters. VIII - VII centuries BC e.

especially in the field of monumental relief, attracted attention for a long time. In particular, they had a strong influence on the sculpture of Ancient Iran.

ART OF THE NEW-BABYLON KINGDOM

The fate of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, especially its capital, strikes with a dramatic alternation of ups and downs. The history of Babylonia is an endless series of military conflicts, from which it did not always emerge victorious. The struggle with Assyria was especially difficult. In 689 BC. e. the Assyrian ruler Sennacheri "b (705-680 BC) destroyed and flooded Babylon, brutally cracking down on its inhabitants. Esarhaddon, the son of Sennacherib, ordered to rebuild the city, but, suppressing Assyrian rebellion in 652 BC,

repeated the crime of his father. Only after Assyria stopped

its existence, Babylonia was able to achieve a dominant position in Asia Minor. A short period of its heyday came during the reign of Nebuchadon "sora II (605-562 BC). Babylon became one of the richest and most distinctive cities in the region, a political and spiritual center: it had five to ten three The Babylonian culture was seen as a direct successor to the Sumerian-Akkadian traditions, which were revered at that time.

Unfortunately, very few monuments have survived from the brilliant era of Nebuchadnezzar II. And yet, historical sources have brought us information about what other large buildings were in Babylon. First of all, this is the huge palace of Nebuchadnezzar II with the “hanging gardens” of Queen Semira Mida, which the Greeks considered one of the seven wonders of the world. The most famous building was the ziggurat called Etemenanki, dedicated to the supreme god of the city.

Babylon. Reconstruction. VI in. BC e.

* "Hanging Gardens" of Queen Semiramis (IX c. BC BC) received such a name, as they were located on high terraces attached to the royal palace.

According to the Bible, the inhabitants of the city of Babylon planned to build a tower to heaven, but God did not allow them to carry out this plan, "mixing the languages" of the builders so that they no longer understood each other. The Biblical Tower of Babel has a real prototype - the Etemenanki ziggurat in Babylon. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that this is “... a massive tower with one stage each (one hundred and eighty meters. - Note. ed.) in length and width. Above this tower another one was placed, above the second one a third, and so on up to the eighth. The ascent to them is made from the outside: it goes in a ring around all the towers. Having risen to the middle of the ascent, you find a place to rest with benches: those ascending the tower sit down to rest here. There is a big temple on the last tower...”. The ziggurat of Etemenanki has not survived to our time; excavations carried out in the 20th century established only the place where it was located.

Ziggurat Etemenanki. Reconstruction. VI in. BC e.

Marduk. The height of the ziggurat was ninety meters, and it is he who is considered to be the prototype of the Biblical Tower of Babel.

The only architectural structure of Babylon that has survived to this day is the gate of the goddess Ishtar - one of the eight front entrance gates, bearing the names of the eight main deities. From each of the entrances a sacred road led to the temple of the same deity. Thus, the gates were part of the temple complexes, and the entire territory of the city was perceived as a sacred space. The Ishtar Gate was of particular importance - from them, past the temple of Marduk, a wide Procession Road was laid, along which solemn processions passed. The gate was a huge arch, on four sides of which there were high massive jagged towers.

neither. The whole structure was covered with glazed brick with relief images of the sacred animals of the god Marduk. Thanks to the delicate and refined color scheme (yellow image on a blue background), this monument looked light and festive. Clearly maintained intervals between the figures tuned everyone approaching the gate to the rhythm of the solemn procession.

For many centuries of the new era, people knew about Babylon, as well as about Assyria, from biblical narratives. On their basis, an image of an aggressive state was formed, trampling all the norms of politics and morality. Indeed, in the pursuit of conquest, in mercilessness to the vanquished, Babylonia was not inferior to Assyria: many peoples forcibly resettled from

*Glaze (from German Glas - "glass") - a vitreous coating on the surface of a clay product, fixed by firing.

Tiled facing of the gate of the goddess Ishtar from Babylon. Fragment, VI

Gate of Goddess Ishtar

from Babylon. VI in. BC e. State Museums, Berlin.

A lion. Tiled cladding of the wall of the throne room of King Nebuchadnezzar

from Babylon.

Fragment.

VI in. BC e.

state museums,

Berlin

ART OF THE SCYTHIANS

The peoples who wandered in the 7th century. BC e. - III century. n. e. in the vast expanses of the Eurasian steppes, ancient historians and writers called Scythians. They did not have a written language, and therefore their origin and history are full of secrets.

The nomadic lifestyle influenced the art of these peoples. They did not know monumental structures and painting. “The Scythians are not in the habit of erecting altars and temples to the gods ...”, - the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who traveled around the country of the Scythians in the 5th century, was surprised. BC e. Artistic works of the Scythians are most often small objects made of gold, silver and bronze with images of animals. In the figurines of animals and birds, the characters of myths were recreated, ideas about the structure of the world were reflected. For example, a running deer is a symbol of the sun, constantly changing seasons; the eagle is the guardian of the underworld, a symbol of immortality.

Almost all examples of Scythian art were found during excavations mounds- hills piled over the burial places of leaders and kings. According to the descriptions of Herodotus, clothes were specially sewn for a complex funeral ritual, horse harness, ritual vessels, decorations for sword scabbards and quilts for bows and arrows were made.

During excavations of the Chiliktinsky burial mound in Eastern Kazakhstan (VIII-VII centuries BC), archaeologists discovered five hundred and twenty-four gold items. Among them are deer with horns bent over their backs, a panther curled up into a ball, an eagle's head with a curved beak. Images of animals are extremely expressive: they convey both rapid movement and internal tension with a semblance of peace. In the form of animals and birds, the masters emphasized powerful horns, strong hooves, strong teeth, keen eyes. The artistic manner of the Scythian masters was called by scientists the Scythian animal style.

In the mounds of the Pazyryk Valley in the Altai Mountains, thanks to permafrost, things made from short-lived materials are well preserved. These are expressive silhouettes of animals carved from leather, parts of the body of which are marked with commas, semicircles and spirals; figurines of swans sewn from felt; fabrics and carpets. Even tattoos on the skin of buried men have survived to this day. By themselves, these tattoos are excellent examples of Scythian art - drawings of animals, decorated with spirals, merge with the details of other images, creating a beautiful and intricate pattern.

Scythian art in its development repeatedly experienced the influence of other cultures. In the VII-VI centuries. BC e., during the campaigns of the Scythians in Asia Minor and after them, oriental motifs appeared in the works of art of the Scythian masters - images of fantastic animals, scenes of predators attacking deer. In the VI-V centuries. BC e. the art of the Scythians, who lived in the Northern Black Sea region, was strongly influenced by the culture of the ancient Greeks.

At the beginning of a new era, the Scythian tribes disappeared, mixing with other peoples.

Panther. Kelermes mound. Stavropol.

VII in. BC e.

Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Deer. Kostroma barrow. Stavropol. Around 600 BC e. Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Fighting warriors. Comb decoration. Kurgan Solokha. Ukraine. IV in. BC e.

Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

mythological scenes. Arrow quiver decoration. Mound Chertamlyk. Ukraine. IV in. BC e. Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Head of the ancient Greek god Dionysus. Clothing decoration. IV in. BC . e. Mound Chertamlyk. Ukraine.

Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Scythians. Reliefs on vessels. Frequent mounds. Ukraine. IV in. BC e.

Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

native places; among them were the ancient Jews. However, Babylon was treated with respect in ancient times. He did not suffer the terrible fate of Nineveh. Persian king Cyrus II the Great, in 539 BC. e. seized the country, did not destroy Babylon, but solemnly entered the city as a conqueror, thereby paying tribute to its great past.

A lion. Tiled cladding of the Procession Road from Babylon.

Fragment. VI in. BC e.

State Museums, Berlin.

ART OF THE ACHEMENID EMPIRE

The Persians and the Medes, tribes of Indo-European origin that inhabited Ancient Iran, are first mentioned in the Assyrian chronicles of the 9th century. BC e. In 550 BC. e. the Persian king Cyrus II the Great (558-530 BC), descended from the Achaemenid dynasty, overthrew the Median king and annexed Media to his state. In 539 BC. e. The Persian kingdom subjugated Babylonia, in 525 BC. e. -Egypt, then extended its influence to the cities of Syria, Phoenicia, Asia Minor and turned into a gigantic empire. The Achaemenid kings pursued a flexible and far-sighted policy towards the conquered states. Each of them was declared a satrapy (province) of Persia and had to pay tribute. At the same time, the conquerors did not destroy the cities, they constantly emphasized their tolerance for the traditions, religion and culture of the conquered peoples: for example, they arranged symbolic coronations for the kingdom according to local customs, participated in ceremonies of worship of local deities. The domination of Persia in the East lasted about two hundred years and was crushed only in 331 BC. e. during the eastern campaign of Alexander the Great.

It was not easy for the Median and Persian masters to find an independent path in art, since they were surrounded by monuments of more ancient and vibrant cultures than their own. And yet, studying and adopting other people's traditions, they managed to create their own artistic system, the so-called "imperial style". It is characterized by solemnity, scale and, at the same time, thoroughness in the finishing of details.

The artistic centers of the Achaemenid Empire were the royal residences. A huge number of people brought in from the occupied territories took part in their construction.

Tomb of King Cyrus II Great in Pasargadae. Around 530 BC e.

Each of the residences was a grandiose architectural and sculptural complex, in which everything was subordinated to the main idea - the glorification of the power of the king.

An ensemble in Pasargadae, a city founded by Cyrus II in southern Iran in the 6th century BC. to i. e., - the most ancient, and it is poorly preserved. Probably, his appearance, strict and even severe, harmoniously fit into the majestic mountain landscape. The ensemble included three main buildings: a large-scale entrance-portal, on the sides of which, in accordance with the Assyrian tradition, there were giant figures of bull-men; palace for ceremonial receptions - apada "well; palace premises for housing - taja "ru. This layout is typical for all subsequent ensembles. In Pasargadae, the tomb of Cyrus II has been preserved - a strict and massive structure eleven meters high, which vaguely resembles a Mesopotamian ziggurat. Its walls were not decorated, and only above the entrance was the symbol of the supreme god Ahura Mazda - a large complex rosette (a flower-shaped ornament) with gold and bronze inserts.

In the planning and design of the royal palace at Susa, the ancient Persian capital, destroyed by the Assyrians and rebuilt under the reign of the most famous

* Alexander the Great (336-323 BC) - the king of Macedonia (one of the states on the Balkan Peninsula), a military leader, the creator of one of the largest powers of the Ancient World, which collapsed after his death.

kings: Darius I (522-486 BC), Xerxes (486-465 BC) and Artaxerxes I (465-424 BC), clearly but the traditions of Mesopotamia were traced. All the premises of the complex of buildings were grouped around vast courtyards. The entrance to the main courtyard of the residence of Darius I was decorated with a tiled relief, exquisite in composition and color, depicting the royal guard. The design of the back wall of the northern facade - the figures of winged bulls, also lined with tiles - resembled the Ishtar gate in Babylon.

The front residence (520-460 BC) deserves special attention.

BC e.) kings Darius I and Xerxes in Perse "field, which is better preserved than others, despite the fact that in 330 BC Alexander the Great tried to destroy it. The architectural ensemble is located on a high artificial platform in a valley surrounded by mighty black basalt rocks.The main buildings of the complex are the palaces of Darius I and Xerxes, as well as the apadana with a front columned hall, where a huge staircase, decorated with numerous reliefs, led.

The reliefs depict scenes popular in Western Asia: a fight with fantastic creatures, scenes of royal receptions with

Elamite Guard. Tiled relief from the palace of Artaxerxes at Susa. V in. BC e.

Apadana in Persepolis. Fragment. 520-460 BC e.

Zoroastrianism

In the VII-VI centuries. BC e. In ancient Iran, a new religion developed - Zoroastrianism. The founder of this creed Zarathushtra (Greek Zoroaster) argued that the basis of the universe is a constant struggle between the deities of good and evil - Ahura Mazda and Ankhra Mainyu, which began even before the creation of the Universe. Man has the freedom to choose between good and evil, but it is his religious and moral duty to be on the side of good. An important place in the teachings of Zarathushtra is also occupied by the veneration of the "sacred elements" - earth, air and especially fire (the symbol of Ahura Mazda). At the turn of the VI-V centuries. BC e. Zoroastrianism became the official religion of the Achaemenid Empire, having undergone, however, a number of changes. The Achaemenids preserved the earlier cults of the main ancient Iranian deities - for example, the sun god Mithra, the goddess of water and fertility Anahita - declaring Ahura Mazda the highest of them.

* Tiles - tiles made of baked clay, often covered with paintings or glaze.

Apadana reliefs at Persepolis. Fragments. 520-460 AD BC e.

processions of Babylonians, Medes, Urartians and other peoples conquered by the Iranians. In the main hall, the king is depicted on a throne among those close to him. Creating reliefs, masters from Persepolis used the experience of Assyrian sculptors,

but unlike them, they never tried to depict in their works scenes in which there is a lot of movement and emotional tension. Even compositions dedicated to battles are static and solemn.

Behistun relief. End VI in. BC e.

Behistun relief. Fragment. End VI in. BC e.

In 522 BC. e. Bardia, the younger brother of the Persian king Cambyses, son of Cyrus II, revolted and seized power. According to the version of subsequent rulers, an impostor, the Indian magician (priest) Gaumata, acted under the name of Bardia, and Bardia himself was killed. The reign of Bardia-Gaum "you lasted only seven months - as a result of a conspiracy, he died, and the young aristocrat Darius (the future king Darius 1) who seized the throne brutally cracked down on all his supporters. By order of Darius, in memory of this victory, a high Behistun rock was carved a huge composition.One of the reliefs depicted Darius trampling on Gaumata and his allies.The inscription in Elamite, Akkadian and Old Persian said that Darius, the executor of the will of Ahura Mazda, established order and justice.

PARTHIAN ART

The history of the Parthian kingdom was short, stormy and bright. The territory of Parthia (part of modern Turkmenistan and Northeast Iran) from the 7th century. BC e. was part of powerful powers (first Media, then Achaemenid Iran, even later - the empire of Alexander the Great and, finally, the Seleucid kingdom, named after its founder Seleucus, commander Alexander the Great). In the middle of the III century. BC e. the nomadic tribe of the Parthians, led by their leader Arshak, defeated the governor of the Seleucids and, having united with the local population, created an independent state - Parthia, which very quickly turned into a powerful military state. In its heyday, it included Iran and Mesopotamia, the south of Central Asia, a significant part of Syria and modern Afghanistan. Parthia turned out to be the only state of Western Asia that withstood the military onslaught of the Roman Empire.

Thus, the culture of this region was formed under the influence of both Iranian-Mesopotamian and Hellenistic traditions, and it is difficult to determine which of the two influences turned out to be stronger. The fate of the artistic heritage of Parthia was dramatic. Many monuments perished in the 19th century, when archaeological work was carried out on the territory of As-

* Hellenism (from Greek"Hellenes" - "Greeks") - ancient art of the end of the 4th-1st centuries. BC e., spread as a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great.

Syria and Southern Mesopotamia: rushing to quickly get to the deepest and most ancient sections of soil that promised sensational discoveries, amateur archaeologists ruthlessly destroyed the layers of Parthian culture located above. The surviving archaeological material could not be appreciated for a long time. Of course, against the backdrop of famous monuments from Assyria, Babylon or the Achaemenid Empire, the Parthian heritage looks modest. It is also true that the Parthian masters sought to combine in their works the features of different styles to the detriment of finding their own way in art.

During the excavations of the city of Staraya Nisa, interesting buildings were discovered, but most of them are rather poorly preserved. The so-called Square House (II century BC) is a building with twelve rooms located around the courtyard. It is curious that the rooms turned out to be walled up along with the works of art that were in them. It is possible that the Square House was a complex of treasuries created in memory of the dead kings. A similar custom was mentioned by the ancient Greek historian Strabo.

Another monument in Staraya Nisa is the Round Temple (II century BC). Scientists have not yet come to a consensus regarding its purpose. Some suggest that this is a sanctuary erected in honor of King Mithridates (about 170-138 or 137 BC), especially since the ancient name of the city is Mithridatokert. Other experts consider the Round Temple to be a burial structure - a mausoleum, since the architectural forms used in it (a circle and a square) had a symbolic meaning. The circle was associated with ideas about the sky, and the square meant the four cardinal points and symbolized the earth.

The most interesting part of the Parthian heritage is the works of arts and crafts. These are metal figurines, and furniture details, but above all - ivory rhytons. The neck of the rhyton was decorated with a relief, as a rule, on an antique plot: for example, the image of a ritual procession in honor of the Greek god of viticulture and wine-making Dionysus. The Parthian masters tried not to go beyond

Bronze head

statues from Shami.

I in. BC e. - I in. n. e.

Parthian queen. I in. n. e.

Archaeological Museum, Tehran.

Rhyton from Staraya Nisa. II - I centuries BC e.

Turkmenistan.

*Rhytons are decorative goblets for wine in the form of a horn, usually ending with an animal figurine. However, there were also rhytons in the form of a human or animal head.

Greek tradition, and yet their works reflected local ideas about the beauty of faces and proportions.

The Parthian kingdom suffered the fate of many states created by military force - it died in 224 AD. h. as a result of the uprising of the Persian tribes. The royal power passed to the governor of Persia, Ardashir I (227-241), who came from the Sassanid clan.

ART OF THE SASANID EMPIRE

The art of this empire, which swallowed Parthia, was formed during the period when the culture of Western Asia was undergoing a transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. The Sassanids, being an Iranian dynasty, built their state on the model of the Achaemenid state, thereby establishing a hereditary connection with the great sovereigns of Ancient Iran. Like the Achaemenids, the Sassanids instilled in society ideas about the divine origin of the power of the Shahinshah ruler - the “king of kings”. They chose Zoroastrianism as their state religion. Sasanian art revived the tradition of monumental architecture and rock sculpture of the Achaemenid era. The majestic temple complexes erected on high stone terraces and gigantic reliefs carved on the rocks glorified the power and affirmed the divine essence of royal power.

In the era of the Sassanids, the ensemble of the Iranian Zoroastrian fire temple appeared chartak(from Persian."chahartak" - "four arches"). In plan it is a square four-arched building with a dome in the center. Usually it was built of hewn stone and covered with plaster. Chartaki were built on the slope or top of a mountain, not far from a stream, river or pond; they performed religious ceremonies in front of the fire.

In the architecture of the Sasanian palaces, an important place was occupied by quince "n- a high vaulted front hall without a front wall. Installed in front of a square domed hall, the aivan gave the building a special solemnity. The Sassanid Palace in Ctesiphon, fifty kilometers from Baghdad (Iraq), built in the 5th-6th centuries. and destroyed by earthquakes and time, thanks to its still existing aivan, even in ruins it retained an image of unprecedented power and royal grandeur.

Stone carvers of the Sassanid times continued the artistic tradition that had developed in the official art of the Achaemenid Empire. The giant images on the reliefs represented military triumphs, the hunts of the king, scenes of the god giving him the crown of power.

The canon of the official portrait was formed in the Sasanian reliefs. The face of the Shahinshah, the heir to the throne or a noble nobleman was depicted on reliefs in profile. With special care, the masters depicted a hairstyle and headdress with insignia of the person being portrayed and complex symbols associated with his divine patron. The images of the kings were accompanied by an inscription, which indicated the standard title of the Shahinshah: "Worshiping Ahura Mazda, the lord, the king of the kings of Iran, descended from the gods." There were also rules for depicting Zoroastrian deities in human form. Ahura Mazda on the reliefs looked the same as the Shahinshah, but the god was crowned with a jagged crown. Sol-

Royal lion hunt. Relief on the bowl.

the finite deity Mitra was represented in the form of a man armed with a sword and dressed in royal clothes with a radiant disk behind his head. The deity stood on a stylized lotus flower. The goddess of water and fertility Anahi "that was depicted in the attire of a queen and in the jagged crown of Ahura Mazda.

The decorative art of the Sassanid Empire is most clearly represented by preserved silver vessels with relief, chased and gilded images of royal hunting, Zoroastrian auspicious symbols in the form of plants and animals, mythological characters.

In the 7th century The Sassanid Empire was conquered by the Arabs. Her art, having completed the history of ancient Iranian artistic culture, became

than the foundation on which the art of medieval Iran arose and flourished later.

King Shapur I, receiving the crown of power from the god Ahura Mazda. 243-273 AD Naqsh-i-Rajab near Persepolis.

Sumer is the first written civilization that existed in southeastern Mesopotamia. 5-4 thousand years BC

Geography: From the ancient Greek language, the word “Mesopotamia” is translated as “(country) between the rivers”. Mesopotamia extends between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in their middle and lower reaches. These rivers originate in the mountains of Armenia and on the territory of modern Turkey. It was in the southern part of Mesopotamia that the country that we call Sumer was located. And it is there that one should look for the origins of the Sumero-Akkadian civilization.

Stone construction is being developed. Cuneiform appeared - this is a kind of writing system on clay, in which a system of three-dimensional symbols was used, from the combination of which meaning was born. Similar clay tablets are characterized by a lenticular shape. The book in the Sumerian tradition is a basket with stone tablets. Cuneiform is developing into a single system. LIBRARY OF ASHUR-BONEPAL.

Temples of the Two Rivers.

The center of each city-state was a temple with a large temple economy allocated to it by the community, in which dependent free people and slaves worked, and later exclusively slaves. The oldest example of a Sumerian temple dates back to the late Neolithic period. Although this building, excavated in the city of Eridu (modern Abu Shahrain), was poorly preserved, but, judging by the layout, all the main features that were also characteristic of the later temples of the southern Mesopotamia were already there. The temple stands on a high platform, to which stairs (or ramps) lead from two sides; the sanctuary itself is somewhat shifted to the edge of the platform and has an inner courtyard open at the top; the only, in essence, decoration of the temple is the division of the walls with narrow rectangular niches from the outside and inside. No less characteristic is the absence of windows, which were not needed in the very hot climate of the Southern Mesopotamia. Rectangular doorways and small openings - vents under the ceiling served for the influx of air and upper-side lighting. Temples dedicated to the gods were built. They were named after the color of the walls. Example: "White" and "Red" temples in Uruk (dedicated to Anu - the god of the sky; decorated with glazed tiles). Tel-ukair - a temple on a high pillow, frescoes, a frieze with lions, leopards have been preserved; many stairs. Built from raw brick. The Uruk and Jemdet-Nasr periods also include the only discovered example of a public building - the house of public meetings, the so-called Red Building in the city of Uruk at the end of the 4th millennium BC. Its plan is characteristic: a large closed courtyard with a tribune at one of the walls is surrounded by powerful semi-columns and columns made of raw brick. Half-columns and columns are decorated with a geometric ornament, which was obtained as a result of a peculiar technique - with the help of fired stone or clay cones hammered into the mud brickwork, the flat ends of which are painted in red, black and white. Obviously, this original decoration is an imitation of wicker mats. Such a system of surface decoration disappears in the art of the Mesopotamia of later periods.

Architecture in the 2nd millennium.

From the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, rulers began to build palaces for themselves. The palace is an overgrown house with a number of courtyards, sometimes with a fortress-type outer wall. The palace of King Zimrilim in Mari dates back to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, where ceremonial rooms with wall paintings of a cult nature were opened. The depicted scenes are static, which is usual for religious scenes in the art of Mesopotamia, but very colorful. The content of the images is ornamentally framed processions of the gods and cult scenes; Obviously, the interesting scene of picking dates also has a cult character, which, however, occupies a subordinate place in the overall composition. Of course, there is no need to talk about fresco painting at this time - we have before us a simple painting of the walls on dry land.

Ziggurat- a stepped rectangular tower made of bricks, on the first platform the temple of St. to any god - an integral part of the temple complex. Example: The ziggurat in Nipur consisted of three steps of different colors, total height 21 m, width 60x40 m. It was also the oldest observatory. The priests watched the stars, gave names to the planets and gods. This tradition was adopted by the Romans.

Royal Tombs at Ur- a large number of highly artistic works of art: weapons, helmets, items made of precious metals, stones; found a harp decorated with gold, decorated with a bull's head.

Tomb of Meskalamdug found a ceremonial helmet of gold.

The architecture of the Akkadian period developed in the mainstream of Mesopotamian architecture, retaining its traditional techniques, such as the horizontal division of walls by alternating ledges (pilasters) and niches, the construction of temples on artificial elevations, etc.

art

The art of early Sumer differs from the monuments of art of the late Neolithic, primarily in the rejection of the conventionality of figures and geometrism (with rare exceptions). On the contrary, there is a clear desire, but the ability to more accurately convey the depicted nature, especially when it comes to reproducing representatives of the animal world. Small figurines of domestic animals - calves, bulls, rams, goats - are made of soft stone (serpentine, sandstone); various scenes related to the life of domestic and wild animals are presented on reliefs, cult vessels, and seals. Many of these images are so accurate that the species and breed of the animal can be easily identified; their characteristic postures and movements are vividly transmitted. However, no matter how vitally sometimes the artist reproduced nature, all these images were subordinated to magical purposes, although, unfortunately, it is not always possible to guess what requirements and tasks magic imposed on the image in each individual case.

An excellent example of the plastic art of the ancient Mesopotamia, which makes it possible to judge the characteristic features of the art of this time, is a vessel found in Uruk. The vessel was intended for sacrificial libations and had two necks. On the sides of the plum, as if guarding it, there are two figures of a lion. On the body of the vessel are two lions, rising on their hind legs, attacking two bulls. All figures are given in very high relief, and the heads of animals protrude from the surface, so we can talk about the plastic, sculptural design of the vessel. The bodies of the bulls are given somewhat shortened, which creates the appearance of a perspective reduction. On the cult vessel from Uruk, which shows us a festive procession with gifts, we clearly see these image features characteristic of ancient Eastern art: figures with a torso turned to the front, a face in profile, with an eye in the front, legs in profile; the animals are presented entirely in profile, the river conveyed in undulating lines.

The main monuments of fine art of the ancient Sumerian civilization:

Round or cylinder seals, necessary for "signing", and sometimes appearing as amulets.

Heraldic compositions - copper reliefs of temples (coats of arms).

Palettes - natural stone plates with carved images.

Steles - stone, marble, granite or wooden slabs with images carved on it, but more often texts. Most often they were installed as a burial stone.

Dorants are initiatory figurines of a person in a praying pose.

A sculptural head from Uruk, somewhat smaller than the natural size, in which the goddess Inanna is supposedly seen (the sculpture was in the temple of Inanna in Uruk), reveals a combination of subtly noticed, perhaps even individual facial features, with features interpreted definitely canonically and conventionally (eyebrows, huge inlaid eyes). This gives a special expressiveness to the monument, one of the best in the history of the fine arts of Mesopotamia.

Head of a goddess from the White Temple in Uruk (fertility goddess Ishtar) – flat, 2 meters high. Wavy wig made of gold leaf + inlaid with expensive stones, shells. Monumental plastic. The binding material is bitumen (of local origin).

Standard of "war and peace" from Ur - inlay technique + gold figurines + mother-of-pearl + ornament = 3 registers. In fig. In art, the role of the protagonist is emphasized by size (if the king, then the largest in the image), just as the more frills on the skirt, the more magnificent it is, the more important the character.

Epigraphy is the science that studies ancient inscriptions.

Stele of kites, Embedded slabs, Sumero-Akkadian culture.

Some rulers: Sargon 1, Naram Suen

Capital: Akkad.

Around the beginning of the III millennium BC. e. Eastern Semites, the ancestors of the Akkadians, migrated to the lands of Upper Mesopotamia, presumably from the Arabian Peninsula. Over time, they borrow writing from the Sumerians, adapting it to their language, as well as mythology and way of life.

Monuments of art:

Bronze head of a statue of the king of Akkad, Sargon the Ancient. Perfectly conveyed traits: majesty and authority. Sargon the Ancient created a dynasty that ruled for 150 years. He united all Mesopotamia, created a centralized state with elements of the East. dyspotism.

Narm-Suen - the grandson of Sargon - considered himself the god of Akkad, ordered to depict himself in a headdress with horns.

Despite the fact that the Akkadian kingdom fell under the blow of the Gutian tribes, the cities flourished in the south. In the culture and art of the Akkadian period, the main motive was the idea of ​​a hero. This is either a deified king of humble origin, who managed to gain power, gather and lead a huge army, unite the lands of Mesopotamia and go on a campaign to distant lands. Or it was a man from the lower classes of society, who, thanks to his strength and abilities, distinguished himself in military campaigns and was exalted by the king. Thus, in art, the Akkadians attached more importance to the person of a person than the Sumerians in the previous period.

Akkadian craftsmen achieved significant success in the manufacture of reliefs. The most striking monuments are the stone steles of the kings Rimush and Naram-Suen.

The glyptic of ancient Mesopotamia was traditionally almost always represented by cylinder seals. They were made from colored semi-precious stones, and their prints conveyed various mythological scenes. Unlike monuments of architecture and sculpture, quite a few seals of the Akkadian period have been preserved.

Sculpture. Sculptural images from different types of stone (limestone, local alabaster sandstone), bronze, and possibly from wood were performed mainly for temples. Their size is mostly small - up to 35-40 cm.

Frontally located figures are static. They are reported standing, very rarely with one leg extended forward, or seated. Arms bent at the elbows are closed palm to palm at the chest with a pleading gesture. In wide-open, straight-looking eyes and lips touched by a smile - a prayer. Prayer posture and facial expressions of the petitioner - that's the main thing that needed to be expressed in the execution of this sculpture. There was no religious, magical requirement to embody the specific, individual characteristics of the original. In the guise of a man, his characteristic ethnic features as a Sumerian were conveyed: a large nose, thin lips, a small chin, a large sloping forehead. Through them, only the features of a particular person are visible. It is no coincidence that on the back or shoulder of many figures, the name of the person whom the sculpture depicted, as well as the name of the deity to whom it was dedicated, was carved in a rectangular frame.

Master artists of the early dynastic period created typified human figures-symbols. However, in that era, despite the common ideology, there were still no well-established and legalized by the official tradition and the unified supreme secular and religious authorities, the norms and methods of performance. Each of the sculptures was made without literally repeating, without copying others. The modeling of hairstyles, beards, large strands of wool on clothes is very different. The lines and curls of these strands are deeply cut across the surface of statues and reliefs, sometimes smoothly and easily, sometimes angularly and dryly. These details, along with the eyes inlaid with black and white stone, enliven the images, making them decorative and elegant.

The statue of Ebih-Il, made of blue and white stone, his pleadingly raised eyes give the look of this bearded man an expression of naivety. Ebih-Il sits on a round "stool" in a fluffy skirt with strands of thick wool adorning it. His whole figure is realistic, proportional. Torso and arms are bare.

Relief images of the early dynastic period, due to the lack of still unified canonized norms of execution, are marked by a peculiar expressiveness and decorativeness. This affects, first of all, in a variety of compositions in various modeling of forms. The sequence of pictorial narration about this or that event dominates. In order to convey everything as clearly as possible, individual scenes are distributed by belts, the figure of the main character - the ruler or god - is highlighted in a larger size than the others, as if in a close-up.

The reliefs are carved on a neutral background, not occupied by other images, with clear, more or less flat silhouettes. Faces, as well as figures in general, are typified.

The most common plots are: the laying of temples, victory over enemies, a feast after the laying or victory.

The Eanatum Stele was created to commemorate the victory of the city-state of Lagash over one of the neighboring cities of Umma. The stele of Eanatum is undoubtedly carved by a creatively gifted author. The victory is personified by the large figure of the god Ningirsu, which occupies the entire front side of the plate. However, the god quite realistically finishes off with a mace the captured warriors of Umma, floundering in a mesh bag. The embossed lines on the other side of the stela are even more concrete. Eanatum on a chariot, carrying a spear, enters the battle. Warriors behind him. Above, Eanatum leads the Lagashites on foot. A total of nine warrior heads are visible above the large shields covering their bodies. There is a feeling of a very large, steadily moving mass of people. Such a result was obtained with the help of the image of numerous hands protruding from behind the shields, clutching spears.

Strictness, restraint of silhouettes, clarity of forms, fine elaboration of details characterize the gold ceremonial helmet of Meskalamdug. golden vessels - bowls, goblets.

As in round plastics and reliefs, large articulations that monumentalize them predominate in all these products. Their color structure is based on deep, rich color combinations of the natural color of semi-precious stones - dark blue lapis lazuli, orange-pink carnelian, gold and silver (that is, on the natural decorativeness of these materials).

Numerous figures, statues made of dionite are known. Good knowledge of anatomy, portrait is presented.

11. Art of Babylonia. Chronology. Geographic limits. General characteristics of the phenomenon. Bibliography of the question: M. V. Dobroklonsky. History of the Arts of Foreign Countries, Volume I, Academy of Arts of the USSR, Gnedich.

The history of the Ancient East, the art of V. is divided into 2 periods: the Old Babylonian period (20-17 centuries BC) and Neo-Babylonian art (7-6 centuries BC). In the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. the most significant in Mesopotamia was the so-called Old Babylonian culture. It took shape as a result of an important political transformation. King Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), who ruled on the middle reaches of the Euphrates, united the regions of Sumer and Akkad into one state under the rule of the city of Babylon, (translated as “Gate of God”). Pore ​​testifies to the vitality of the traditions of the Sumerian-Akkaan art at that time.

Sculpture. The diorite stele of King Hammurabi, with a code of laws and a relief in its upper part, is the most characteristic monument of the era. The relief composition on the stele is symbolic. This is an investiture - the scene of King Hammurabi receiving signs of power from the sun god Shamash. Seated on a schematically transmitted ziggurat, Shamash hands out to the king a ring-shaped coiled rope and a rod, and perhaps also measures of length, that is, the attributes of a builder. The deity, as it were, transfers to the ruler of the country, his main servant, the authority to act on his, deity, name and for his glorification. The composition of two figures of a god and a king, placed opposite each other, is balanced. On the uneven, strongly protruding, almost triangular face of the stone, this was not easy to achieve. The folds of clothes and strands of hair of the characters are worked out, cut through with picturesque indentations, with the expectation of the play of light and shadow. The king's face is thin, with strongly sunken cheeks and prominent high cheekbones, portrait. The latter circumstance especially clearly confirms the high artistic level of the monument. The perception of the realistic achievements of Akkadian art by the Neo-Babylonian artists becomes undeniable. The plasticity of the Old Babylonian period is equally vividly represented by a diorite male head from a statue, possibly of King Hammurabi. With the monumental compactness of the total volume of the head, all parts of it are transferred plastically, softly and picturesquely. Undoubtedly, the portraiture of sharp, strong-willed, even severe features of a narrow face with sunken cheeks. Monuments of the 18th century BC. from the city-state of Mari, on the middle Euphrates, from the western outskirts of Babylonia, are the most valuable evidence of the style of Old Babylonian art. The head of Mari was the ruler of Zimrilim. Archaeological excavations revealed the ruins of the Zimri-lima palace. which was an extensive architectural ensemble. This palace was built of raw brick during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Decorative ornamental stripes were applied on the lower socle parts of the walls. The alabaster statue of the goddess Ishtar from her temple in the palace of Zimrilim is also distinguished by high artistic qualities. Being a little over one meter in height, it is very monumental. This quality is imparted to the statue by a calm frontal setting, as well as a very slight dissection of the overall cylindrical volume of the figure and each of its parts, highlighted only by a large mass. The dress of the goddess falls softly to the ground like a heavy bell. Light folds encircling the garment enliven this columnar form. The fingers and feet of the goddess protrude slightly from under the edge of the skirt raised in front. The upper part of the sculpture - a torso and a head in a spherical cap - a tiara, which is crowned with two massive large horns, smoothly curved over the forehead - completes this statue like a capital. The goddess is represented by a beautiful woman with a broad face, breathing inner strength. Large strands of hair lie on her sloping shoulders in two twisted braids. Massive rounded earrings in six rows of round beads necklaces. She supports a massive jug at the waist with both hands. This is the goddess in whose power the origins of life. She carries pure spring water - “water of life” to people in this vessel. From a hole drilled through the statue, from the throat of a jug, once, in response to prayers, a stream of water poured out, of course, with the help of priests. The city-state of Mari was an ally of Babylon for nearly four decades. But at the end of this period, its existence was stopped by the aggressive campaign of King Hammurabi. The soldiers of Hammurabi, besieging and taking the city and the palace, plundered and destroyed everything.

Neo-Babylonian art. (7-6 centuries BC) From the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e., after the fall of the Kassite dynasty, Babylonia was in a state of complete economic and political helplessness. A new short-term rise of Babylon began at the end of the 7th century. BC, when (in 626 BC) the military leader Nabopolassar seized the supreme power in Babylon. He managed to include in Babylonia the former possessions of Assyria, as well as most of Mesopotamia, Elam, all of Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine. The development of the culture of the time of New Babylon took place under the strong influence of the culture of Assyria, which was defeated by it.

Architecture. Architecture was the main type of neo-Babylonian art. A vivid evidence of this is the city of Babylon, which, over the decades of its last heyday, has been transformed into an architectural ensemble that is integral in terms of planning and style. Located on both banks of the Euphrates, Babylon had the appearance of an elongated rectangle and was divided into two parts by the river. More ancient areas, the so-called Old City, were located on the eastern shore. The defense of Babylon was served by four complexes of battlements with towers - buttresses made of raw and baked bricks with the addition of masonry, as well as a deep ditch. The length of the inner wall was over 3 km, and the outer wall was 18 km. It was possible to get into the city through eight bastion gates dedicated to different gods. From each gate began straight broad streets, precessional roads that clearly divided the city into large sections. Inside these quarters, streets passed, unlike the Sumerian ones, quite regularly planned, but not wide: the distance between the blank walls of residential buildings on their sides was no more than 4 m. god Marduk-Esagil. In the city, which was the center of the religious life of the state, there were 53 significant large temples and several hundred small sanctuaries and altars. The most important of them was the sanctuary of the supreme god Marduk-Esagil, which was a sacred area of ​​16 hectares. Its vast territory was singled out among the residential quarters of the city by the fact that it was surrounded by a double wall, with its massiveness creating the impression of a fortress stronghold: there were 12 entrances-gates in the wall. The main - "sacred" gates were introduced into the territory of the sanctuary of Marduk-Esagila from the most important processional road laid from the Ishtar gate. Opposite this gate, on the other side of the sacred precinct, was the vast array of the famous ziggurat, the so-called Tower of Babel.