Pieter Bruegel the Elder, as a faithful follower of the ideas of Hieronymus Bosch, encrypted in his work, which can safely be called a hit, anti-Catholic views and political satire. Snezhana Petrova tells what is depicted on the canvas besides the biblical legend.
Plot
Tower of Babel- one of the most popular biblical images in art. It is exploited in all sorts of ways: in cinema, theater, painting, literature. But Bruegl's painting is perhaps the most famous visual representation.
According to the biblical story, the descendants of Noah are the same ones who survived after global flood, - scattered across the land of Shinar. And at some point the idea came to them to build a tall tower: by joining forces, people wanted to ascend to heaven, that is, to the level of god. But it was not there. God clearly did not expect people to visit, so in order to prevent the construction of the tower, he sent a terrible punishment - a variety of languages. Suddenly people lost the ability to communicate. Not only did God create linguistic chaos, he also scattered people throughout the world. This is how the Bible explains the multiculturalism of our world.
"Tower of Babel". Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563 (click to enlarge image)
In the foreground we see King Nimrod, who, in fact, announced a tender for the construction of the tower. The money has been allocated - it needs to be inspected (there were no web cameras and all these technologies back then so that the customer could remotely monitor builders and contractors). And so Nimrod arrived at the construction site, simple people, naturally, fall on their faces.
Bruegel began to write biblical stories after meeting Bosch
Nimrod was cruel and proud. It is no coincidence that the biblical character in Bruegel’s painting resembles a man from the 16th century. The painter alludes to Charles V, who was distinguished by his despotism.
Pay attention to how the craftsmen are compositionally positioned: in the foreground there is manual labor, then there is the use of long poles to move stone slabs, at the ground floor level there is the use of a block, then increasingly powerful cranes. According to one version, in this way Bruegel showed the development of construction technology.
The tower looks obscenely huge. And to better understand this, strain your eyes a little and look at the details that are written out very finely (by the way, each of the elements is shown in detail). The tower itself has already reached the clouds - and at any moment it will touch the god’s heel.
The structure looks like a jumble of levels and elements. Apparently, it was conceived as an object similar to the Colosseum, but with each new floor it is more difficult to trace the logic of the builders. According to Bruegel's idea, God's punishment overtook the masters: people stopped understanding each other and began to build, some in the forest, some for firewood. As a result, the material is placed unevenly, it is obvious that the seemingly strong tower is about to collapse and bury arrogant people under its rubble.
By the way, the image of the Colosseum was not used by chance. Initially, it was a symbol of the persecution of Christianity, because it was there that the first followers of Jesus were executed. Bruegel considered the Colosseum to be the Habsburg Empire, where Catholicism was imposed and Protestants, of whom the artist himself was a supporter, were brutally persecuted.
Bruegel's Tower of Babel is an allegory of the Habsburg Monarchy
This idea is reinforced by another image - the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome. A building similar to it is located inside the Tower of Babel. In the Middle Ages, the castle served as the residence of the popes and was perceived as a symbol of the power of the Catholic faith.
Ships entering the port are depicted with their sails removed - a symbol of hopelessness and disappointed hopes.
Context
Bruegel was very fond of the legend of the Tower of Babel. Two of his paintings on this topic have survived - a small one (kept in Rotterdam) and a large one (about which we're talking about in this text, kept in Vienna). There was also a miniature on ivory, but it has not survived.
"The Tower of Babel", Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Small option
Until the 16th century, the topic of the Tower of Babel attracted almost no attention. European artists. However, after 1500 the situation changed. The Dutch masters were especially fascinated by this subject. One of possible reasons- Dutch economic prosperity and urbanization. For example, Antwerp (which is depicted in Bruegel's painting) was overrun by foreigners. In fact, the city was the same multilingual Tower of Babel. People were no longer united by one church: Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans and Anabaptists lived mixed together. A feeling of fuss, insecurity and anxiety gripped the unfortunate residents of the Netherlands. How can one not remember the biblical story?
In the image of Nimrod, Bruegel encrypted Charles V
Bruegel was not so simple. In the image of the Tower of Babel, he encrypted his idea of the fate of the Habsburgs. Under Charles V, the Habsburg Empire included the lands of Austria, Bohemia (Czech Republic), Hungary, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. However, in 1556, Charles abdicated the crown, and this huge state began to disintegrate under its own weight.
The fate of the artist
Information about the life of the artist, who, by the way, is considered the last star fading Renaissance in the Netherlands. In his mature youth, he was literally dumbfounded by Bosch. After becoming acquainted with his work, Bruegel began to write on biblical subjects, and chose themes that his contemporaries largely ignored.
Portrait of Bruegel by Dominic Lampsonius, 1572
Bruegel was obviously a politically charged artist. In his paintings he tried to express criticism of both the authorities and the church. At the same time, he refused to paint portraits or nudes, despite tempting orders. Its main characters were faceless inhabitants of the Dutch provinces. At that time it was a challenge to trends.
Last years Bruegel's life passed in an atmosphere of religious terror
Pieter Bruegel was about forty when the army of the Spanish Duke of Alba, with orders to destroy heretics in the Netherlands, entered Brussels, where the artist lived. The last years of the artist’s life passed in an atmosphere of religious terror and in the colors of blood.
September 5, 1569, four hundred and forty-four
years ago, Pieter Bruegel the Elder died.
A great artist of the past, he became
our contemporary, wise
interlocutor
people of the 21st century.
Cities towers of Babel,
Having become proud, we exalt again,
And the God of the city on the arable land
Ruins, interfering with the word.
V. Mayakovsky
What is the Tower of Babel - a symbol of the unity of people all over the planet or a sign of their disunity? Let's remember the biblical story. The descendants of Noah, who spoke the same language, settled in the land of Shinar (Shinar) and decided to build a city and a tower high to heaven. According to people's plans, it was supposed to become a symbol of human unity: “let us make a sign for ourselves, so that we are not scattered across the face of the whole earth.” God, seeing the city and the tower, reasoned: “now nothing will be impossible for them.” And he put an end to the daring act: he mixed languages so that the builders could no longer understand each other, and scattered people around the world.
(C)(C)
Etemenanki Ziggurat. Reconstruction. 6th century BC.
This story appears in the biblical text as an inserted novella. Chapter 10 of the book of Genesis details the genealogy of the descendants of Noah, from whom “the nations spread throughout the earth after the flood.” Chapter 11 begins with the story of obashena, but from the 10th verse the interrupted theme of the genealogy is resumed: “this is the genealogy of Shem.”
Mosaic in the Palatine Chapel. Palermo, Sicily. 1140-70
The dramatic legend of the Babylonian pandemonium, full of concentrated dynamics, seems to break the calm epic narrative and seems more modern than the text that follows and precedes it. However, this impression is deceptive: Bible scholars believe that the legend about the tower arose later than the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e., i.e. almost 1000 years before the oldest layers of biblical texts were formalized in writing.
So did the Tower of Babel really exist? Yes, and not even alone! Reading further in Genesis chapter 11, we learn that Terah, Abraham's father, lived in Ur, the largest city in Mesopotamia. Here, in the fertile valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. there existed a powerful kingdom of Sumer and Akkad (by the way, scientists decipher the biblical name “Shennaar” as “Sumer”). Its inhabitants erected ziggurat temples in honor of their gods - stepped brick pyramids with a sanctuary on top. Built around the 21st century. BC e. the three-tiered ziggurat in Ureva, 21 meters high, was a truly grandiose building for its time. Perhaps the memories of this “stairway to heaven” were preserved for a long time in the memory of the Jewish nomads and formed the basis of an ancient legend.
Construction of the Tower of Babel.
Mosaic of the Cathedral in Montreal, Sicily. 1180s
Many centuries after Farrai and his relatives left Ur and went to the land of Canaan, Abraham's distant descendants were destined not only to see the ziggurats, but also to participate in their construction. In 586 BC. e. the king of Babylonia, Nebuchadnezzar II, conquered Judea and drove captives into his power - almost the entire population of the kingdom of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar was not only cruel conqueror, but also a great builder: under him, many wonderful buildings were erected in the capital of the country, Babylon, and among them is the ziggurat of Etemenanki (“House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth”), dedicated to the supreme god of the city, Marduk. The seven-tiered temple, 90 meters high, was built by the captives of the Babylonian king from different countries, in including the Jews.
Construction of the Tower of Babel.
Mosaic in the Cathedral of San Marco, Venice.
Late 12th - early 13th centuries.
Historians and archaeologists have collected enough evidence to confidently assert: the Etemenanki ziggurat and other similar Babylonian buildings became prototypes of the legendary tower. The final edition of the biblical tale of the Babylonian pandemonium and confusion of languages, which took shape after the Jews returned from captivity to their homeland, reflected their recent real impressions: a crowded city, a multilingual crowd, the construction of gigantic ziggurats. Even the name “Babylon” (Bavel), which comes from the West Semitic “bab ilu” and means “gate of God,” was translated by the Jews as “confusion,” from the similar-sounding ancient Hebrew word balal (to mix): “Therefore the name Babylon was given to it, for there the Lord confused the language all the earth."
Master of the Bedford Book of Hours. France.
Miniature "Tower of Babel". 1423-30
IN European art From the Middle Ages and the Renaissance we will not find significant works on the subject that interests us: these are mainly mosaics and book miniatures- genre scenes that are interesting to today’s audience as sketches medieval life. Carefully, with sweet naivety, the artists depict the bizarre tower of diligent builders.
Gerard Horenbout. Netherlands.
"Tower of Babel" from the Grimani Breviary. 1510s
The legend of the Tower of Babel received a worthy interpreter only at the end Renaissance, in the middle of the 16th century, when the biblical story attracted the attention of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. About the life of the great Dutch artist very little is known. Researchers of his work “calculate” the master’s biography, studying indirect evidence, peering into every detail of his paintings.
Lucas van Valckenborch. Netherlands.
Tower of Babel. 1568
Bruegel’s works on biblical themes speak volumes: he more than once turned to subjects that were rarely chosen by artists of that time, and what is most remarkable, interpreted them based not on an established tradition, but on his own, original understanding of the texts. This suggests that Pieter Bruegel, who came from a peasant family, knew Latin well enough to independently read biblical stories, including the tale of the Tower of Babel.
Unknown German artist. Tower of Babel. 1590
The legend of the tower seemed to attract the artist: he dedicated three works to it. The earliest of them has not survived. We only know that it was a miniature on ivory (the most valuable material!), which belonged to the famous Roman miniaturist Giulio Clovio. Bruegel lived in Rome during his Italian travels in late 1552 and early 1553. But was the miniature created precisely during this period by order of Clovio? Perhaps the artist painted it back in his homeland and brought it to Rome as an example of his skill. This question remains unanswered, as does the question of which of the following two paintings was painted earlier - the small one (60x74 cm), stored in the Rotterdam Boijmans van Benningen Museum, or the large one (114x155 cm), the most famous, from the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Some art historians very cleverly prove that the Rotterdam painting preceded the Viennese one, others no less convincingly argue that the Viennese one was created first. In any case, Bruegel again turned to the theme of the Tower of Babel about ten years after his return from Italy: big picture written in 1563, the small one a little earlier or a little later.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Small" Tower of Babel. OK. 1563
The architecture of the Rotterdam tower clearly reflects the artist’s Italian impressions: the similarity of the building with the Roman Colosseum is obvious. Bruegel, unlike his predecessors who depicted the tower as rectangular, makes the grandiose stepped building round and emphasizes the motif of arches. However, it is not the resemblance between the Bruegel Tower and the Colosseum that strikes the viewer first of all.
Roman Coliseum
.
The artist’s friend, the geographer Abraham Ortelius, said of Bruegel: “he wrote a lot of things that were considered impossible to convey.” Ortelius’s words can be fully attributed to the painting from Rotterdam: the artist depicted not just a tall, powerful tower - its scale is prohibitive, incomparable to a human one, it surpasses all imaginable measures. The tower “with its head to the heavens” rises above the clouds and in comparison with the surrounding landscape - the city, the harbor, the hills - seems somehow blasphemously huge. With its volume it tramples the proportionality of the earthly order and violates divine harmony.
But there is no harmony in the tower itself. It seems that the builders spoke to each other in different languages from the very beginning of work: otherwise why did they erect arches and windows above them? Even in the lower tiers, neighboring cells differ from each other, and the higher the tower, the more noticeable the discrepancy. And on the sky-high peak, complete chaos reigns. In Bruegel’s interpretation, the Lord’s punishment - confusion of languages - did not overtake people overnight; misunderstanding was inherent in the builders from the very beginning, but still did not interfere with the work until it reached some critical limit.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Small" Tower of Babel. Fragment..
The Tower of Babel in this painting by Bruegel will never be completed. When looking at her, I remember the expressive word from religious and philosophical treatises: abandonment by God. Human ants are still swarming here and there, ships are still mooring in the harbor, but the feeling of the meaninglessness of the whole undertaking, the doom of human efforts does not leave the viewer. The tower emanates desolation, the picture - hopelessness: the proud plan of people to ascend to heaven is pleasing to God.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Big" Tower of Babel. 1563
Let us now turn to the great Tower of Babel. In the center of the picture is the same stepped cone with many entrances. The appearance of the tower has not changed significantly: we again see arches and windows of different sizes, an architectural absurdity at the top. As in the small picture, the city stretches to the left of the tower, and the port to the right. However, this tower is completely proportionate to the landscape. Its bulk grows out of the coastal rock, it rises above the plain, like a mountain, but the mountain, no matter how high it is, remains part of the familiar earthly landscape.
The tower does not look abandoned at all - on the contrary, work is in full swing here! People are busily scurrying around everywhere, materials are being transported, wheels of construction machines are turning, ladders are placed here and there, temporary sheds are perched on the ledges of the tower. With amazing accuracy and true knowledge of the matter, Bruegel depicts contemporary construction technology.
The picture is full of movement: the city lives at the foot of the tower, the port is seething. In the foreground we see a wave of current, truly Bruegelian genre scene: the shock construction site of all times and peoples is visited by the authorities - the biblical king Nimrod, on whose order, according to legend, the tower was erected. They are in a hurry to clear the way for him, stonemasons fall, the retinue anxiously catches the expression on the face of the arrogant ruler...
Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Big" Tower of Babel.
Fragment. King Nimrod with his retinue.
However, this is the only scene imbued with irony, of which Bruegel was a subtle master. The artist depicts the work of the builders with great sympathy and respect. And how could it be otherwise: after all, he is the son of the Netherlands, a country where, in the words of the French historian Hippolyte Taine, people knew how to “do the most boring things without boredom,” where ordinary prosaic work was respected no less, and maybe even more, than sublime heroic work impulse.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Big" Tower of Babel. Fragment.
However, what is the meaning of this work? After all, if you look at the top of the tower, it becomes obvious that the work
clearly reached a dead end. But note that the construction covers the lower tiers, which, logically, should have
be already completed. It seems that, having despaired of building a “tower as high as heaven,” people began to take more
a concrete and feasible task - they decided to better equip that part of it, so that it would be closer to the ground, to reality,
to everyday life.
Or maybe some “participants joint project» abandoned construction, while others continue to work,
and the confusion of languages is not a hindrance to them. One way or another, there is a feeling that the Tower of Babel is on Viennese painting destined to be built forever. Thus, from time immemorial, overcoming mutual misunderstanding and enmity, the people of Earth have built the tower of human civilization. And they will not stop building as long as this world stands, “and nothing will be impossible for them.”
"Tower of Babel"- famous painting by artist Pieter Bruegel. The artist created at least two paintings based on this subject.
Plot
The picture is based on a plot from the First Book of Moses about the construction of the Tower of Babel, which was conceived by people to reach the sky with its top: “ Let's build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches to heaven" To pacify their pride, God confused their languages so that they could no longer understand each other and scattered them throughout the earth, so the building was not completed. The moral of this picture is the frailty of everything earthly and the futility of mortals’ aspirations to compare with the Lord.
"Tower of Babel" (Vienna)
Bruegel's Tower of Babel is quite consistent with traditions pictorial image this biblical parable: there is an amazing scale of construction, the presence of a huge number of people and construction equipment. It is known that Bruegel visited Rome. His "Tower of Babel" is easily recognizable as the Roman Colosseum, with its typical features of Roman architecture: projecting columns, horizontal tiers and double arches. Seven floors of the tower have already been built in one way or another, and the eighth floor is being built. The tower is surrounded by construction barracks, cranes, hoists used in those days, ladders and scaffolding. At the foot of the tower is a city with a busy port. The area where the Tower of Babel is being built is very reminiscent of the Netherlands with its plains and sea.
The people depicted in the picture - workers, stonemasons - seem very small and resemble ants in their diligence. Much larger than the figure of Nimrod, the legendary conqueror of Babylon in the 2nd millennium BC, inspecting the construction site. e., traditionally considered the leader of the construction of the tower, and his retinue in the lower left corner of the picture. The low, oriental-style bow of the stonemasons to Nimrod is a tribute to the origin of the parable.
It is interesting that, according to Bruegel, the failure that befell such a “large-scale project” was not due to sudden language barriers, but to mistakes made during the construction process. At first glance, the huge structure seems quite strong, but upon closer examination it is clear that all the tiers are laid unevenly, the lower floors are either unfinished or are already collapsing, the building itself is tilting towards the city, and the prospects for the entire project are very sad.
Tower of Babel (Rotterdam)
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| Pieter Bruegel the Elder | |
| Tower of Babel (Rotterdam). around 1563 | |
| Wood, Oil. 60 × 74.5 cm | |
| Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam | |
Presumably dated to the same year 1563 is a smaller painting from the Boijmans-van Beuningen Museum, the so-called “ Small Tower of Babel" Art historians do not have a consensus on whether this painting was painted somewhat later or somewhat earlier than the “Great Tower of Babel.” Unlike the “Great Tower of Babel”, the painting is painted in a dark color scheme and looks pretty gloomy.
- An even smaller version of the Tower of Babel is in the Dresden Art Gallery. Perhaps Bruegel wrote more copies on a popular subject, which have not survived to this day. So, for example, in the guarantees of the Antwerp merchant Niklaesa Jonghelink, dated 1565, another “Tower of Babel” by Bruegel is mentioned.
- An allusion to Bruegel’s “Tower of Babel” is the image of the city of Minas Tirith in the film “The Lord of the Rings”.
- The painting “Tower of Babel (Rotterdam)” serves as the cover of the album “Gorgorod” by Russian rapper Oxxxymiron.
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Excerpt characterizing the Tower of Babel (picture)
The next day, at 8 o’clock in the morning, Pierre and Nesvitsky arrived at the Sokolnitsky forest and found Dolokhov, Denisov and Rostov there. Pierre had the appearance of a man busy with some considerations that were not at all related to the upcoming matter. His haggard face was yellow. He apparently didn't sleep that night. He looked around absentmindedly and winced, as if from the bright sun. Two considerations exclusively occupied him: the guilt of his wife, of which, after a sleepless night, there was no longer the slightest doubt, and the innocence of Dolokhov, who had no reason to protect the honor of a stranger to him. “Maybe I would have done the same in his place,” Pierre thought. I probably would have done the same thing; Why this duel, this murder? Either I will kill him, or he will hit me in the head, elbow, knee. “Get out of here, run away, bury yourself somewhere,” came to his mind. But precisely in those moments when such thoughts came to him. With a particularly calm and absent-minded look, which inspired respect in those who looked at him, he asked: “Is it soon, and is it ready?”When everything was ready, the sabers were stuck in the snow, indicating a barrier to which they had to converge, and the pistols were loaded, Nesvitsky approached Pierre.
“I would not have fulfilled my duty, Count,” he said in a timid voice, “and would not have justified the trust and honor that you showed me by choosing me as your second, if at this important moment, a very important moment, I had not said tell you the whole truth. I believe that this matter does not have enough reasons, and that it is not worth shedding blood for it... You were wrong, not quite right, you got carried away...
“Oh yes, terribly stupid...” said Pierre.
“So let me convey your regret, and I am sure that our opponents will agree to accept your apology,” said Nesvitsky (like other participants in the case and like everyone else in similar cases, not yet believing that it would come to an actual duel) . “You know, Count, it is much nobler to admit your mistake than to bring matters to an irreparable point.” There was no resentment on either side. Let me talk...
- No, what to talk about! - said Pierre, - all the same... So it’s ready? - he added. - Just tell me where to go and where to shoot? – he said, smiling unnaturally meekly. “He picked up the pistol and began asking about the method of release, since he had not yet held a pistol in his hands, which he did not want to admit. “Oh yes, that’s it, I know, I just forgot,” he said.
“No apologies, nothing decisive,” Dolokhov said to Denisov, who, for his part, also made an attempt at reconciliation, and also approached the appointed place.
The place for the fight was chosen 80 steps from the road where the sleigh was left, in a small clearing pine forest, covered with melted from standing last days thaws with snow. The opponents stood 40 paces from each other, at the edges of the clearing. The seconds, measuring their steps, laid traces, imprinted in the wet, deep snow, from the place where they stood to the sabers of Nesvitsky and Denisov, which meant a barrier and were stuck 10 steps from each other. The thaw and fog continued; for 40 steps nothing was visible. For about three minutes everything was ready, and yet they hesitated to start, everyone was silent.
- Well, let's start! - said Dolokhov.
“Well,” said Pierre, still smiling. “It was getting scary.” It was obvious that the matter, which began so easily, could no longer be prevented, that it went on by itself, regardless of the will of people, and had to be accomplished. Denisov was the first to step forward to the barrier and proclaimed:
- Since the “opponents” refused to “name”, would you like to begin: take pistols and, according to the word “t”, and begin to converge.
“G...”az! Two! T”i!...” Denisov shouted angrily and stepped aside. Both walked along the trodden paths closer and closer, recognizing each other in the fog. Opponents had the right, converging to the barrier, to shoot whenever they wanted. Dolokhov walked slowly, without raising his pistol, peering with his bright, shining, blue eyes into the face of his opponent. His mouth, as always, had the semblance of a smile.
- So when I want, I can shoot! - said Pierre, at the word three with quick steps walked forward, straying from the well-trodden path and walking on solid snow. Pierre held the pistol outstretched forward right hand, apparently afraid that he might kill himself with this pistol. Left hand he carefully pushed it back, because he wanted to support his right hand with it, but he knew that this was impossible. Having walked six steps and strayed off the path into the snow, Pierre looked back at his feet, again quickly looked at Dolokhov, and, pulling his finger, as he had been taught, fired. Not expecting such a strong sound, Pierre flinched from his shot, then smiled at his own impression and stopped. The smoke, especially thick from the fog, prevented him from seeing at first; but the other shot he was waiting for did not come. Only Dolokhov’s hurried steps were heard, and his figure appeared from behind the smoke. With one hand he held his left side, with the other he clutched the lowered pistol. His face was pale. Rostov ran up and said something to him.
"Tower of Babel", 1st option. 1564 Size 60x75 cm. Rotterdam, Boijmans van Beuningen Museum.
Pieter Brueghel the Elder or Bruegel was famous Flemish artist best known for his paintings of Flemish landscapes and scenes from the life of peasants. He was born in 1525 ( exact date unknown) year, presumably in the city of Breda (Dutch province). He died in 1569 in Brussels. Pieter Bruegel the Elder had a great influence on all art Hieronymus Bosch. In 1559, he dropped the letter h from his surname and began signing his paintings under the name Bruegel.
The legend of the tower seemed to attract the artist: he dedicated three works to it. The earliest of them has not survived. The picture is based on a plot from the First Book of Moses about the construction of the Tower of Babel, which was conceived by people to reach the sky with its top: “Let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose height reaches to heaven.” To pacify their pride, God confused their languages so that they could no longer understand each other and scattered them throughout the earth, so the building was not completed.
"Tower of Babel", 2nd option. 1564 Size 114 x 155 cm. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum. Bruegel, unlike his predecessors who depicted the tower as rectangular, makes the grandiose stepped building round and emphasizes the motif of arches. However, it is not the resemblance between Bruegel’s tower and the Colosseum that strikes the viewer first of all. The artist's friend, the geographer Abraham Ortelius, said of Bruegel:
“he wrote a lot of things that were considered impossible to convey.” Ortelius’s words can be fully attributed to the painting from Rotterdam: the artist depicted not just a tall, powerful tower - its scale is prohibitive, incomparable to a human one, it surpasses all imaginable measures. The tower “with its head to the heavens” rises above the clouds and in comparison with the surrounding landscape - the city, the harbor, the hills - seems somehow blasphemously huge. With its volume it tramples the proportionality of the earthly order and violates divine harmony. But there is no harmony in the tower itself.
It seems that the builders spoke to each other in different languages from the very beginning of the work: otherwise why did they erect arches and windows above them at all costs? Even in the lower tiers, neighboring cells differ from each other, and the higher the tower, the more noticeable the discrepancy. And on the sky-high peak there is complete chaos.
"Construction of the Tower of Babel." A copy of the lost original. The painting was painted after 1563. Size 49 x 66 cm. Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale. In Bruegel's interpretation, the Lord's punishment - confusion of languages - did not overtake people overnight; misunderstanding was inherent in the builders from the very beginning, but still did not interfere with the work until its degree reached some critical limit. The Tower of Babel in this painting by Bruegel will never be completed. When looking at her, I remember an expressive word from religious and philosophical treatises: God-forsakenness.
The Tower of Babel is one of the most famous paintings great Dutch artist (1525-1569). The canvas was painted in 1563 (wood, oil). Currently located in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. In the art of this painter there are a large number of masterpieces of world significance, but “ Tower of Babel"is held in special esteem. Surely, many of you, having heard about the Tower of Babel, imagine it exactly as it is presented in Bruegel’s painting. This is because this canvas is published almost everywhere, from books with biblical content to textbooks for primary school children.
The story of the Tower of Babel story tells that people set out to reach heaven and become equal to God. To pacify their pride, God confused the languages of people, as a result of which they ceased to understand each other, and construction could not continue. People with different languages scattered throughout the world, and the tower appeared as a symbol that speaks of all futility to compare with God.
Painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder fully embraces the grandeur of man's ideas. The tower is already built so high that it reaches the clouds. There is a city nearby, and a large number of people work on construction. The picture is very realistic and narrative. When studying the painting, it was found that Bruegel took the Colosseum in Rome, which he saw during one of his trips, as the basis for the Tower of Babel. The plain, the sea, and the buildings around the tower are more reminiscent of his native Netherlands. The little workers who work on the construction are more like ants who set out to build the largest anthill in the world, and not in order to live in it, but in order to please their own pride and show their exceptional superiority.
The painting also depicts Inspector Nimrol, who was considered the leader of the construction of the tower. Here Bruegel tried to show a slightly different side of the construction failure. The tower failed not at all because all the languages were mixed, but because fatal mistakes were made in the design. The entire building is built unevenly, the lower floors begin to collapse, and the tower itself begins to tilt to the side and is soon ready to collapse completely.
There are two paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder on the subject of the Bath of Babylon. The one shown here is called the Great Tower of Babel. The second one is made in a smaller size and is therefore called Small. The Small Tower of Babel is made in gloomy colors and in the complete absence of people, since construction has already been suspended.
