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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). Given this strong association it is somewhat surprising that the theme appears so rarely in the oeuvres of either his son or grandson (Jan Breughel the Elder and Younger); the present picture appears to be the only known example by the latter. The only instance in which Jan Breughel the Elder addressed the subject was in providing the figures for Tobias Verhaecht's large-scale depiction, datable to 1602-10, in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp (K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel Der Altere, Cologne, 1979, p. 572, no. 88, p. 515, fig. 630). Ertz, likewise, records just one Tower of Babel by Josse de Momper (Brussels, Musées des Beaux-Arts); also on a large-scale (175 x 250 cm.) and a collaboration, although the identity of the figure painter remains uncertain (K. Ertz, Josse de Momper der Jungere, Freren, 1986, p. 611, no. 545, p. 405, fig. 514).
This newly discovered and unrecorded work has little relationship to either of these examples. The large scale, no doubt considered the best way to convey the grandeur of the subject, is abandoned in favour of an altogether more delicate rendering. The degree of care and precision invested in the picture is attested to by the presence of a preparatory sketch by Jan Breughel setting out the artist's ideas for the main figure group in the left foreground and several of the workers at the foot of the tower beyond (K. Ertz, Jan Breughel the Younger, Freren, 1984, pp. 502-3, no. 333, illustrated; see fig. 1). Ertz realised from the activity of the figures that the sketch was used for a Tower of Babel but was obviously unaware then of the existence of the present picture. He lists eight oil sketches by the artist (op. cit., nos. 330-7); the sketch for the present lot is the only one that can now be directly related to a finished picture.
This newly discovered and unrecorded work has little relationship to either of these examples. The large scale, no doubt considered the best way to convey the grandeur of the subject, is abandoned in favour of an altogether more delicate rendering. The degree of care and precision invested in the picture is attested to by the presence of a preparatory sketch by Jan Breughel setting out the artist's ideas for the main figure group in the left foreground and several of the workers at the foot of the tower beyond (K. Ertz, Jan Breughel the Younger, Freren, 1984, pp. 502-3, no. 333, illustrated; see fig. 1). Ertz realised from the activity of the figures that the sketch was used for a Tower of Babel but was obviously unaware then of the existence of the present picture. He lists eight oil sketches by the artist (op. cit., nos. 330-7); the sketch for the present lot is the only one that can now be directly related to a finished picture.