2021/5/22 The Tower of Babel
Babel Tower, 1563, 114*155cm, Collection of peter Bruegel, Kunsthistorisches Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna
It was Bruegel's first work when he moved to Brussels, when he was 38 years old.
The painting is based on the Old Testament Book of Genesis, where legend has it that Noah's descendants moved to a great plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in South Asia, and for fear of another flood, they resolved to build a tower in which everyone could live in it for eternal peace. The tower grew higher and higher to reach the celestial realm, angering God. God's decision to use magic to disrupt the language of the tower-builders, so that people could not communicate with each other and the project could not be carried out smoothly, which is the source of the different national languages explained by Christianity.
The painter depicts the fantastical scene of the Tower of Babel (a "Tower of Babel") with a grand composition, the tower body rotates up layer by layer to show the tower towering deep into the clouds; there are several floors directly in front of the tower that have not been completely closed, showing the internal structure, and there is a collapse on the side, the situation is complex, and the project seems to be unsustainable. There were stones scattered on the ground, and the leader of the tower with his entourage came to inspect the suspension, and several craftsmen were kneeling down to explain the reason. The giant tower sits on the seashore, with boats docked along the coast. The vista is a vast expanse of wilderness and dense houses under a vast clear sky, revealing a plain townscape.
The painter depicts the relationship between people and things, people and the environment in a genre painting technique, and each floor of the tower is painted with small workers and vehicles, depicting many episodic character activities, intentionally pulling away the proportional distance between the character image and the tower body and the surrounding landscape, in order to highlight the vast and arduous construction of the tower, as well as the strong creativity of human beings, but also shows the irreconcilability of "Providence" and man in transforming the world, and the struggle between man and nature is heroic and tragic.
Bruegel Pieter (c. 1525-1569)
The greatest painter of the Netherlands in the 16th century. Born in the village of Bruegel in the North Brabant state of the Netherlands (i.e. near Brieda). The first teacher was Piet Kuk van Ulster, who grew up in stained glass religious paintings; later, he studied with IronimUs Cork, a publisher and painter in Antwerp who valued folk printmaking, who had the deepest influence on him. From 1552 onwards, he traveled to Italy and France, where he was widely known, and returned to work in Cork's painting shop in the following winter. In 1563, after marrying Marie, the daughter of his first teacher, Bruegel moved to Brussels, where he remained until his death at the age of about 44, a period of more than five years at the height of his creative life. He had two sons who were also painters, so later generations called him "Old Bruegel". Bruegel Sr.'s later years were the golden age of his art.
[Painting style] All his life to rural life as the subject of artistic creation, although the number of works is only about fifty, but the influence in art history can not be underestimated, known as "the farmer's Bruegel", one of the three giants of Flanders painting. Good at thinking, naturally humorous, fond of exaggerated artistic modeling, through the faithful depiction of the details of things and the abrupt contrast of grotesque fantasies, to create a microcosm of the world. His profound observations are evident in realistic works depicting peasant life or in satirical paintings that express the background of the times. The style of painting is simple and straightforward. Masterpieces such as the famous "Winter Hunt" and "Peasant's Wedding" fully reveal Bruegel's usual diverse plot arrangements and literary implications; The composition is compact and the side contour lines are depicted, making the things in the painting seem simple, but showing a very powerful effect. He inherited the artistic style of Bosch, also known as the "new Boss", and was the first "peasant painter" in the history of European art.
【Representative works】"John the Baptist's Sermon", "Peasant Wedding" and "Peasant Dance", "Snow Hunter", "Dark Day"
"Pastoral Return", "The Blind Man's Fable", "Winter Hunt", "Dance Under the Gallows"