The Tower of Babel

Details

Circle of Abel Grimmer (Antwerp c.1570-1618/9)
The Tower of Babel
with signature and date 'P.Bruegel 1590' (lower left)
oil on panel
97.4 x 128.9 cm.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The subject is taken from Genesis (11:1-9) which recounts how the people decided to 'build ourselves a city and a tower, with its top in the heavens' and appointed Nimrod - 'the mighty warrior before the Lord'- to oversee its construction. This account provided a rich source of subject matter for several late 16th and early 17th century Flemish painters whose representations of it were inspired ultimately by the two iconic eponymous works of 1563 by Pieter Breughel the Elder (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum; and Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen).

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