Mannheim
3 October 2009
bis 21 February 2010
Foe and Fascination
Fertile Encounters
Tracking Alexander?s expedition, the exhibition leads visitors from the Ancient Near Eastern metropolis of Babylon, the intended capital of the Alexandrian empire, to its periphery, Central Asia. Alexander?s foe as well as ideal, the Achaemenid Persians had lastingly influenced large parts of the future Alexandrian empire. Without a doubt, showpieces of Achaemenid art are among the exhibition?s particular treasures. In the wake of Alexander?s expedition, something special evolved in Central Asia, to which the exhibition devotes its focus ? an art that appears oddly familiar and at the same time alien to the eye of the beholder. These developments are traced over six centuries, from the Alexandrian age into the 3rd century A.D. Selected archeological finds impressively reveal the fertile encounters and intercultural influences: Greek, Achaemenid, Bactrian, steppe nomadic and East Asian traditions converged on one another productively. This produced such fascinating results as treatments of Greek mythology in the visual world of the Kushan and Gandhara cultures and even the first depictions of Buddha as human.
