Pieter Bruegel the Elder and The Tower of Babel

'The Tower of Babel' (c. 1563) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder;
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

I've seen today's painting The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, born c. 1525 and died on 9 September 1569, at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam and it is very small. Although it is impressive (because of all the small details), I was a bit disappointed (because of its size) and didn't know at the time that Bruegel had painted two other versions of 'The Tower of Babel'. The bigger version is to be seen at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (click here). The first version Bruegel painted, a miniature on ivory, is now lost. This famous painting is a depiction of the well-known biblical story of man's hubris and God punishing man for wanting to build a tower that reached to the heavens. Bruegel got the inspiration for the architecture of his Tower of Babel from the Colosseum in Rome. If you want to know more about the artist's life, please click on the painter's name above.