Description and analysis The Tower of Babel (Bruegel)

detail @ right side, original rock formation.

the story of tower of babel (like in suicide of saul, bruegel s other painting old testament subject) interpreted example of pride punished, , no doubt bruegel intended painting illustrate. moreover, hectic activity of engineers, masons , workmen points second moral: futility of human endeavour. nimrod s doomed building used illustrate meaning in sebastian brant s ship of fools. bruegel s knowledge of building procedures , techniques considerable , correct in detail. skill has shown these activities recalls last commission, left unfinished @ death, series of documentary paintings recording digging of canal linking brussels , antwerp.

both towers shown partly-built stone facings on massive brick framework, typical technique in roman architecture, used in colosseum , other huge roman buildings. grand , formal architecture of sort not usual interest of bruegel in either paintings or drawings, although typical subject matter many of contemporaries. nadine orenstein, in discussing known drawing of buildings in rome, concludes details taken colosseum in both tower paintings must have recorded them in drawings on visit ten years before, given easy availability of prints not seem conclusive.

there no surviving drawings studies or other of bruegel s paintings. despite indications bruegel did make use of preparatory studies. both tower versions full of type of details have been worked out in sketches first. except lack of mountains, paintings contain main ingredients of world landscape, type of composition followed in many of bruegel s earlier landscapes. vienna tower built around steep small mountain, can seen protruding architecture @ centre near ground , right higher up.