Puzzle Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563, is the larger version of two painted in oil and tempera on wood panel. The painting depicts the story of the Biblical Tower of Tower, built in the first generation after the Flood of Noah, allegedly by King Nimrod. Bruegel’s mastery of perspective drawing and lifetime of study from landscape here conveys the gargantuan scale of the Biblical structure, dwarfing the surrounding city and ships in the harbor and rising through the clouds as a circular, spiraling ziggurat. Pieter Bruegel (Brueghel) the Elder (c. 1525 - 1569) was a Dutch/Flemish painter and printmaker of the Northern Renaissance. Among the first artists to incorporate subject matter from landscape and the life of common people, Bruegel all but invented the art of Dutch genre painting. Bruegel painted a number of religious works but is best known for his lively, allegorical paintings of peasants and witty commentary and on life, sin and virtue. His innovative compositions and carefully observed, realistic details influenced many generations of artists, from Rembrandt through the Realists of the modern era.