“Tower of Babel”
Today, we go to the Northern Renaissance with the help of the magnificent artist, Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
“Tower of Babel” is an oil on oak panel painting made by the Flemish master, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, in 1563. It is one of three versions that Bruegel did of this subject. The first painting was a miniature and was lost shortly after he painted it, between 1553-1554. The one shown here, from 1563, is the larger and older of the two remaining paintings, and for that reason is given the sobriquet, “Great”.
Bruegel painted the first of the three paintings when he was working as a free master for the Guild of Saint Luke, a painters guild based out of Antwerp, Belgium. Between 1551 and 1554, he worked throughout France and Italy, spending a significant time in Rome. The influence of the Roman Colosseum is evident in the tower of Babel, with the layering of tiered stone archways. Many, including Bruegel, used their art to draw parallels between the Tower of Babel and the fall of the Roman Empire.
In this piece, Bruegel depicts the infamous tower of Babel. The story of Babel is an origin myth described in the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, 11:1-9, to explain why people speak different languages. In the story, the tower was built by a great and unified monolithic culture, Babylon. As a show of their progress, they were trying to build a tower that would reach heaven. As punishment for their hubris, God gave them all different languages so they could no longer communicate with one another.
Bruegel depicts the tower under construction. Scaffolding, framework timbers, and layers of building material are faithfully painted. Hundreds of people at work dot the scene. The tower sits on the shores of a waterway, where a busy port with ships bringing supplies in. In the foreground, a wealthy man directs the peasants to continue with their work. At the very bottom of the painting, Bruegel signed his name across the facing of a large cut rock. The tower sits in front of a large town enclosed by a city wall, which is dwarfed in frame by the large tower. A cloud passes by the top of the tower, further supporting the fact of its immense height.
This version of the “Tower of Babel” is currently on display at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. The other version is on display at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
For more on Pieter Bruegel the Elder, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
