Der Drache zu Babel / Le Dragon à Babylone

Title

Der Drache zu Babel / Le Dragon à Babylone

Description

Decorative view of the city Baylon, now in Irak.

ca. 1760

Artist

Probst (1732-1801)

Georg Balthasar Probst (1732–1801), Georg Balthasar Probst was a German artist, engraver and publisher in Augsburg, a major European publishing center in the 17th and 18th centuries. He produced architectural views of places around the world intended as vues d’optiques, which were published in various places during the last half of the 18th century, including Paris, Augsburg and London. He was also known for his portraits. Probst came from an extended family of printers, whose businesses can all be traced back to the publishing firm of Jeremias Wolff (1663-1724). After Wolff's death his firm was continued as “Wolff’s Heirs” (Haeres Jer. Wolffii) by his son-in-law Johann Balthasar Probst (1689-1750). After Probst’s death in 1750, his descendants divided the business and published under their own imprints: Johann Friedrich Probst (1721-1781), Georg Balthasar Probst (1732-1801) and Johann Michael Probst. Another part of the Wolff-Probst firm was acquired by the Augsburg publisher Johann Georg Hertel (1700-1775), whose son Georg Leopold Hertel had married a sister of the Probsts. In the next generation, Georg Mathäus Probst (d. 1788), son of Georg Balthasar Probst, also became an engraver of portraits and views.

Historical Description

"Dragon of Babel," together with "Bel of Babel," is an apocryphal or a double narrative in the Greek Bible as a supplement to the Book of Daniel. According to it, Daniel killed a divinely worshipped dragon without the use of force; thus the impotence of the idolatrous dragon is proven. Daniel ch. 14. 23 There was also a great dragon whom the Babylonians worshipped as a god. 24 The king said to Daniel, "You cannot say of this dragon that he is not a living god. Worship him, then! 25 Daniel replied: Only the Lord my God do I worship, for he is truly a living God. 26 But you, king, give me permission to kill the dragon without sword and club! The king said, I give it to you. 27 Then Daniel took pitch, tallow and hair, melted them all together, formed cakes out of them and threw them into the dragon's mouth. The dragon ate them and burst. Then Daniel said, "Look at the gods you worship!