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B101 - The tree of life in its babylonian garden - 2008.
Acrylic on canvas 125 x 190 cm - 49 x 75 inchesMore about this painting
- 2011
- 155 - Antique Achaemenid hunting ...
- 2010
- 149 - When Ninurta hunted Anzu...
- 146 - FREEDOM, WHEN THE SUMERIANS ...
- 143 - Seal of Bel-Mushallim...
- 110-5 - DIPTYCH B109 – B110
- 110 - WHEN FISHES CAME OUT OF THE WATER
- 2009
- 132 - Fight between a horned man...
- 123 - Round légumenomorphe ...
- 115 - Two striking camels for a female
- 114 - Divorce babylonian style...
- 113 - Winged horned centaur sassanid
- 112 - Sassanid winged horse
- 111 - When a balinese embarks with Benu...
- 109 - When the gods were (still) men...
- 108 - Tall Munqaba 2
- 107 - Tall Munqaba 1
- 106 - When a naked queen solicits the intercession ...
- 105 - When Râ, Horus and Isis were in a boat
- 104 - Adda the scribe
- 103 - Seal of Tariba Ishtar ...
- 2008
- 102 - When a sumerian king meets his god
- 101 - The tree of life in its babylonian garden
- 100-5 - B99 & B100 Babylonian diptych
- 100 - Seal of Tariba-Teshub king of Karkemish ...
- 099 - Let him, he, who believes in you ...
More about this painting
Mesopotamia has always been considered as the original heaven with its tree of life and its marvellous animals, and this, in a world where the human had yet to appear. Therefore are we renouncing at the representation of the first couple and the snake lying at the foot of tree of temptation? Indeed, before being the Garden of Eden in the bible, it was already present at every era since the 4th millennium in Mesopotamia.
Nevertheless the tree of life, plentiful of fruits, blessing of god, was also present as an artificial form of gold and bronze, mostly located in the numerous Palace courts of Assyrian kings.
It was the symbol of immortality and was often represented between two prayers or priests leading contemplation to adoration. We will find it again on other paintings of Philhelm.
The sea with its fish is there to remind us that for Mesopotamians the human being came from the sea. The lion, king of animals is the only one watching us, he was the incarnation of cosmic forces.
Only kings had the right to hunt them, even exterminate them if we’re looking at the actual low-reliefs. Regarding the ostrich, it disappeared definitely from this region in 1941.
Tree of life : “Yahweh planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he placed the man that he formed. And out of the ground had Yahweh grow every tree pleasant to the eye, and good for food. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was divided, and became the spring of four rivers: the name of the first river is Pischon,… the name of the second is Guihon,… the name of the third is Hiddékel, which flows toward the east of Assyria, and the fourth river is Euphrates. (Genèse, II, 8-14.)