Tower of Babel artist. The story of one masterpiece: “The Tower of Babel” by Bruegel the Elder

Man is distinguished from animals by vanity, according to the 15th-century German philosopher Nicholas of Cusa. For thousands of years, vanity has poisoned our lives, but remains its driving principle. This is especially acutely felt in critical epochs: in the twentieth century or at the beginning of modern times - five centuries ago

Photo: GETTY IMAGES/FOTOBANK.COM

1. Tower. Architecturally Tower of Babel Bruegel is repeated by the Roman Colosseum (only it consists not of three, but of seven floors). The Colosseum was considered a symbol of the persecution of Christianity: the first followers of Jesus were martyred there during Antiquity. In Bruegel’s interpretation, the entire Habsburg Empire was such a “Colosseum”, where hateful Catholicism was forcefully implanted and Protestants - true Christians in the artist’s understanding - were brutally persecuted (the Netherlands was a Protestant country).

2. Castle. Inside, as if in the heart of the tower, the artist places a building copying the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome. This castle served as the residence of the popes in the Middle Ages and was perceived as a symbol of the power of the Catholic faith

3. Nimrod. According to Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, Nimrod was the very king of Babylon who ordered the construction of the tower to begin. In history, Nimrod left a memory of himself as a cruel and proud ruler. Bruegel depicts him in the guise of a European monarch, referring to Charles V. Hinting at the eastern despotism of Charles, the artist places kneeling masons next to him: they knelt down on both knees, as was customary in the East, while in Europe they stood on both knees in front of the monarch one knee.

4. Antwerp. The pile of houses closely huddled together is not only a realistic detail, but also a symbol of earthly vanity.

5. Craftsmen. “Bruegel shows the development of construction technology,” says Kirill Chuprak. - In the foreground it demonstrates the use of manual labor. Using hammers and chisels, craftsmen process stone blocks

7. At the level of the first floor of the tower there is a crane with a boom, lifting loads using rope and block.

8 . A little to the left is a more powerful crane. Here the rope is wound directly onto a drum driven by the power of the legs.

9. Above, on third floor, - a heavy-duty crane: it has a boom and is driven by the power of the legs.”

10. Huts. According to Kirill Chuprak, “several huts located on the ramp meet the construction requirements of the time, when each team acquired its own “temporary hut” right on the construction site
site."

11. Ships. Ships entering the port are depicted with sails retracted - a symbol of hopelessness and disappointed hopes.

Until the 16th century, the topic of the Tower of Babel attracted almost no attention. European artists. However, after 1500 the situation changed. The Dutch masters were especially fascinated by this subject. According to St. Petersburg artist and art critic Kirill Chuprak, the surge in popularity of the story of the legendary building among the Dutch “was facilitated by the atmosphere of economic recovery in rapidly growing cities, such as, for example, Antwerp. About a thousand foreigners lived in this bazaar city and were treated with suspicion. In a situation where people were not united by one church, but Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans and Anabaptists lived intermingled, a general feeling of vanity, insecurity and anxiety grew. Contemporaries found parallels to this unusual situation precisely in the biblical tale of the Tower of Babel.”

The Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1563 also turned to the popular plot, but interpreted it differently. According to Marina Agranovskaya, an art critic from the German city of Emmendingen, “it looks like in Bruegel’s painting the builders were talking to each other in different languages already from the very beginning of work: otherwise why did they erect arches and windows above them at all costs?” It is also interesting that in Bruegel it is not God who destroys the building, but time and the mistakes of the builders themselves: the tiers are laid unevenly, the lower floors are either unfinished or are already collapsing, and the building itself is tilting.

The answer is that in the image of the Tower of Babel, Bruegel represented the fate of the empire of the Catholic kings from the Habsburg dynasty. This is where there really was a mixture of languages: in the first half of the 16th century, under Charles V, the Habsburg empire included the lands of Austria, Bohemia (Czech Republic), Hungary, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. However, in 1556, Charles abdicated, and this huge state, unable to withstand its own multiculturalism and multiethnicity, began to disintegrate into separate lands (Spain and the Netherlands went to the son of Charles V, Philip II of Habsburg). Thus, Bruegel shows, according to Kirill Chuprak, “not grandiose, large-scale construction, but the futile attempts of people to complete a building that has exceeded a certain size limit,” likening the work of architects to the work of politicians.

ARTIST
Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Around 1525- Born in the village of Brögel near Breda in the Netherlands.
1545–1550 - Studied painting with the artist Peter Cook van Aelst in Antwerp.
1552–1553 - Traveled around Italy, studying Renaissance painting.
1558 - Created the first significant work - “The Fall of Icarus”.
1559–1562 - Worked in the manner of Hieronymus Bosch (“The Fall of Angels”, “Mad Greta”, “The Triumph of Death”).
1563 - Wrote “The Tower of Babel.”
1565 - Created a series of landscapes.
1568 - Impressed by the Catholic terror carried out by the troops of Philip II in the Netherlands, he wrote last works: “Blind”, “Magpie on the Gallows”, “Cripples”.
1569 - Died in Brussels.

Illustration: BRIDGEMAN/FOTODOM

On September 5, 1569, four hundred and forty-four years ago, Pieter Bruegel the Elder died. great artist past, he became our contemporary, a wise interlocutor of people of the 21st century.

Cities towers of Babel,
Having become proud, we exalt again,
And the God of the city on the arable land
Ruins, interfering with the word.

V. Mayakovsky

What is the Tower of Babel - a symbol of the unity of people all over the planet or a sign of their disunity? Let's remember the biblical story. The descendants of Noah, who spoke the same language, settled in the land of Shinar (Shinar) and decided to build a city and a tower high to heaven. According to people's plans, it was supposed to become a symbol of human unity: “let us make a sign for ourselves, so that we are not scattered across the face of the whole earth.” God, seeing the city and the tower, reasoned: “now nothing will be impossible for them.” And he put an end to the daring act: he mixed languages ​​so that the builders could no longer understand each other, and scattered people around the world.

Etemenanki Ziggurat. Reconstruction. 6th century BC.

This story appears in the biblical text as an inserted novella. Chapter 10 of the book of Genesis details the genealogy of the descendants of Noah, from whom “the nations spread throughout the earth after the flood.” Chapter 11 begins with the story of the tower, but from the 10th verse the interrupted theme of the genealogy is resumed: “this is the genealogy of Shem”

Mosaic in the Palatine Chapel. Palermo, Sicily. 1140-70

The dramatic legend of the Babylonian pandemonium, full of concentrated dynamics, seems to break the calm epic narrative and seems more modern than the text that follows and precedes it. However, this impression is deceptive: Bible scholars believe that the legend of the tower did not originate later start 2nd millennium BC e., i.e. almost 1000 years before the oldest layers of biblical texts were formalized in writing.

So did the Tower of Babel really exist? Yes, and not even alone! Reading further in Genesis chapter 11, we learn that Terah, the father of Abraham, lived in Ur, largest city Mesopotamia. Here, in the fertile valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. there was a powerful kingdom of Sumer and Akkad (by the way, scientists decipher the biblical name “Shennaar” as “Sumer”). Its inhabitants erected ziggurat temples in honor of their gods - stepped brick pyramids with a sanctuary on top. Built around the 21st century. BC e. the three-tiered ziggurat at Ur, 21 meters high, was a truly grandiose structure for its time. Perhaps the memories of this “stairway to heaven” were preserved for a long time in the memory of nomadic Jews and formed the basis of an ancient legend.

Construction of the Tower of Babel.
Mosaic of the Cathedral in Montreal, Sicily. 1180s

Many centuries after Terah and his relatives left Ur and went to the land of Canaan, the distant descendants of Abraham were destined not only to see the ziggurats, but also to participate in their construction. In 586 BC. e. King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia conquered Judea and drove captives into his kingdom - almost the entire population of the kingdom of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar was not only cruel conqueror, but also a great builder: under him, many wonderful buildings were erected in the capital of the country, Babylon, and among them is the ziggurat of Etemenanki (“House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth”), dedicated to the supreme god of the city, Marduk. The seven-tiered temple, 90 meters high, was built by captives of the Babylonian king from different countries, including the Jews.

Construction of the Tower of Babel.
Mosaic in the Cathedral of San Marco, Venice.
Late 12th - early 13th centuries.

Historians and archaeologists have collected enough evidence to confidently say: the ziggurat of Etemenanki and other similar buildings of the Babylonians became the prototypes of the legendary tower. The final edition of the biblical tale about the Babylonian pandemonium and confusion of languages, which took shape after the Jews returned from captivity to their homeland, reflected their recent real impressions: a crowded city, a multilingual crowd, the construction of gigantic ziggurats. Even the name “Babylon” (Bavel), which comes from the West Semitic “bab ilu” and means “gate of God,” was translated by the Jews as “mixing,” from the similar-sounding Hebrew word balal (to mix): “Therefore the name Babylon was given to it, for there The Lord has confused the language of the whole earth.”

Master of the Bedford Book of Hours. France.
Miniature "Tower of Babel". 1423-30

IN European art We will not find the Middle Ages and the Renaissance significant works on the subject we are interested in: these are mainly mosaics and book miniatures- genre scenes that are interesting to today’s audience as sketches of medieval life. The artists carefully depict the bizarre tower and diligent builders with sweet naivety.

Gerard Horenbout. Netherlands.
"Tower of Babel" from the Grimani Breviary. 1510s

The legend of the Tower of Babel received a worthy interpreter only at the end of the Renaissance, in the middle of the 16th century, when biblical story attracted the attention of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. About the life of the great Dutch artist very little is known. Researchers of his work “calculate” the master’s biography, studying indirect evidence, peering into every detail of his paintings.

Lucas van Valckenborch. Netherlands.
Tower of Babel. 1568

Bruegel's works on biblical themes speak volumes: he more than once turned to subjects that were rarely chosen by artists of that time, and what is most remarkable, interpreted them based not on an established tradition, but on his own, original understanding of the texts. This suggests that Pieter Bruegel, who came from a peasant family, knew Latin well enough to independently read biblical stories, including the tale of the Tower of Babel.

Unknown German artist.
Tower of Babel. 1590

The legend of the tower seemed to attract the artist: he dedicated three works to it. The earliest of them has not survived. We only know that it was a miniature on ivory (the most valuable material!), which belonged to the famous Roman miniaturist Giulio Clovio. Bruegel lived in Rome during his Italian journey in late 1552 and early 1553. But was the miniature created precisely during this period by order of Clovio? Perhaps the artist painted it in his homeland and brought it to Rome as an example of his skill. This question remains unanswered, as well as the question of which of the following two paintings was painted earlier - the small one (60x74cm), stored in the Rotterdam Boijmans van Benningen Museum, or the large one (114x155cm), the most famous, from the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum museum in Vienna. Some art historians very cleverly prove that the Rotterdam painting preceded the Viennese one, others no less convincingly argue that the Viennese one was created first. In any case, Bruegel again turned to the theme of the Tower of Babel about ten years after returning from Italy: the large painting was painted in 1563, the small one a little earlier or a little later.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Small" Tower of Babel. OK. 1563

The architecture of the tower of the Rotterdam painting clearly reflected the artist’s Italian impressions: the similarity of the building with the Roman Colosseum is obvious. Bruegel, unlike his predecessors who depicted the tower as rectangular, makes the grandiose stepped building round and emphasizes the motif of arches. However, it is not the resemblance between Bruegel’s tower and the Colosseum that strikes the viewer first of all.

Roman Coliseum.

The artist’s friend, the geographer Abraham Ortelius, said of Bruegel: “he wrote a lot of things that were considered impossible to convey.” Ortelius’s words can be fully attributed to the painting from Rotterdam: the artist depicted not just a tall, powerful tower - its scale is prohibitive, incomparable to a human one, it surpasses all imaginable measures. The tower “with its head to heaven” rises above the clouds and in comparison with the surrounding landscape - the city, the harbor, the hills - seems somehow blasphemously huge. With its volume it tramples the proportionality of the earthly order and violates divine harmony.

But there is no harmony in the tower itself. It seems that the builders spoke to each other in different languages ​​from the very beginning of work: otherwise why did they erect arches and windows above them at all costs? Even in lower tiers neighboring cells differ from each other, and the higher the tower, the more noticeable the discrepancy. And on the sky-high peak there is complete chaos. In Bruegel's interpretation, the Lord's punishment - confusion of languages ​​- did not overtake people overnight; misunderstanding was inherent in the builders from the very beginning, but still did not interfere with the work until it reached some critical limit.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Small" Tower of Babel. Fragment.

The Tower of Babel in this painting by Bruegel will never be completed. When looking at her, I remember an expressive word from religious and philosophical treatises: God-forsakenness. Human ants are still swarming here and there, ships are still mooring in the harbor, but the feeling of the meaninglessness of the whole undertaking, the doom of human efforts does not leave the viewer. The tower emanates desolation, the picture - hopelessness: the proud plan of people to ascend to heaven is not pleasing to God.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Big" Tower of Babel. 1563

Let us now turn to the great “Tower of Babel.” In the center of the picture is the same stepped cone with many entrances. The appearance of the tower has not changed significantly: we again see arches and windows of different sizes, an architectural absurdity at the top. As in the small picture, the city stretches to the left of the tower, and the port to the right. However, this tower is quite proportionate to the landscape. Its bulk grows out of the coastal rock, it rises above the plain, like a mountain, but the mountain, no matter how high it is, remains part of the familiar earthly landscape.

The tower does not look abandoned at all - on the contrary, work is in full swing here! People are busily scurrying about everywhere, materials are being transported, wheels of construction machines are turning, ladders are placed here and there, temporary sheds are perched on the ledges of the tower. With amazing accuracy and true knowledge of the matter, Bruegel depicts contemporary construction technology.

The picture is full of movement: the city lives at the foot of the tower, the port is seething. In the foreground we see a current, truly Bruegelian genre scene: the shock construction site of all times and peoples is visited by the authorities - the biblical king Nimrod, on whose order, according to legend, the tower was erected. They rush to clear the way for him, the stonemasons fall on their faces, the retinue tremblingly catches the expression on the face of the arrogant ruler...

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The "Big" Tower of Babel.
Fragment. King Nimrod with his retinue.

However, this is the only scene imbued with irony, of which Bruegel was a subtle master. The artist depicts the work of the builders with great sympathy and respect. And how could it be otherwise: after all, he is the son of the Netherlands, a country where, in the words of the French historian Hippolyte Taine, people knew how to “do the most boring things without boredom,” where ordinary prosaic work was respected no less, and maybe even more than sublime heroic impulse.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Big" Tower of Babel. Fragment.

However, what is the meaning of this work? After all, if you look at the top of the tower, it becomes obvious that the work has clearly reached a dead end. But note that the construction covers the lower tiers, which, logically, should have already been completed. It seems that, having despaired of building a “tower as high as the heavens,” people took up a more concrete and feasible task - they decided to better equip that part of it that is closer to the ground, to reality, to everyday life.

Or maybe some “participants joint project“have abandoned construction, while others continue to work, and the confusion of languages ​​is not a hindrance for them. One way or another, there is a feeling that the Tower of Babel in the Viennese painting is destined to be built forever. Thus, from time immemorial, overcoming mutual misunderstanding and enmity, the people of Earth have erected the tower of human civilization. And they will not stop building as long as this world stands, “and nothing will be impossible for them.”

Renaissance. He is classified as a great master, and among people he is called not the eldest, but the “peasant.” Famous work This artist is the painting “The Tower of Babel”, which will be discussed in our article.

Brief biography of Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Renaissance artist who lived in the 16th century. Exact date There is no birth of the master, but his biographer leaned toward 1525. The opinions of biographers, historians and art historians differ regarding the place of Peter's birth. Some believe that the artist spent his childhood in the city of Breda, while others claim that he native home is located in the small village of Bregel. However, we know for sure that Pieter Bruegel the Elder is from the Netherlands.

In his works, Peter puts images of a satirical epic, village life and nature. The artist has a lot famous paintings on biblical themes and ancient Roman mythology. For example, the painting “The Tower of Babel” is popular, which will be discussed in this article.

Plot

Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s painting “The Tower of Babel” is not the only one of its kind. There are two copies painted by the artist. The large painting dates back to 1563, but there is still debate about the small one.

IN biblical mythology There is a legend that tells about the origin of various languages ​​and peoples. According to legend, after the great flood, only the descendants of Noah lived on earth, who began to own the lands of Shinar. These people always sought to rise to God, for this they decided to build high tower to heaven.

God was against people rising to the level of the Creator, and He sent punishment on them. One morning, Noah's descendants went to construction again, but they no longer understood each other, since each of them spoke a completely different language. Because of this, chaos occurred, the construction of the Tower of Babel stopped, and people, in the hope of finding those who would understand them, scattered throughout the world and created new states and peoples.

Context

The painting “The Tower of Babel” is filled with dozens of important historical fragments that Pieter Bruegel the Elder succinctly depicted.

If you look closely, the first thing that catches your eye is small group people in the lower left corner. King Nimrod is depicted here, a cruel and warlike hero of the Middle East. He also led the construction of the tower. It is not difficult to guess that the king arrived at the construction site to check the progress of work.

There is no doubt that this is Nimrod, since the common people fell prostrate before him. Renaissance art historians claim that this detail is a reference to King Charles V, a despot and emperor of the Roman Empire. Peter also tried to convey in detail the culture of those times: manual labor, agriculture, cattle breeding.

The main feature of the picture is a majestic tower of indecent size, which was impossible to build with hands, so the artist depicted stone and wooden construction machines.

"The Great Tower of Babel"

“The Tower of Babel” is a painting by Bruegel the Elder, created in the mid-16th century. The scale of this picture is amazing. Concentrated here a large number of residents, their common cause and, of course, a huge tower.

The basis for the creation of the painting was the artist’s visit to Rome (1553), so the painting bears a great resemblance to the Colosseum. The main difference between the picture is the complex structure of the Tower of Babel. While the first floors are reminiscent of Roman culture, the upper floors consist of complex construction equipment.

Bruegel the Elder himself repeatedly noted that the Tower of Babel could have been completed if not for the mistakes made during the construction of the building. Therefore, the artist depicted an unevenly constructed, asymmetrical building, where some floors are not completed, are located unevenly, while others are completely collapsing and tilting to the side.

The painting can be seen in the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna).

"Little Tower of Babel"

“The Little Tower of Babel” is a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, which is the opposite of the first version. There is debate among historians and art critics regarding the date of writing of this illustration of the parable. Opinions are split on two fronts: some believe that this work is the first draft and was written before 1563, others attribute the painting to early XVII century.

If you look closely, construction has already been suspended, there are no people in the picture, the cities and fields are deserted. The “Little Tower of Babel” itself is made in darker and gloomier colors, which evokes feelings of anxiety, chaos and devastation. This painting is now in the possession of the Bymans-van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam.

The description of the painting “The Tower of Babel” hides many secrets and mysteries that only an art critic or Bruegel admirer can see. This is because his paintings are a colorful work, including dozens the smallest details. Let's look at some of them.

1. This is not just an image of the Renaissance, but a colorful graphic story not about a biblical parable, but about the life of people 2 thousand years ago. In the picture you can see masons who are hewing out even blocks for construction, and loaders who are erecting these same blocks on stretchers.
2. The painting “Tower of Babel” reflects the vibrant life of those times. Some have vegetable gardens, some plow the land, and some take care of children.
3. The tower is surrounded by a large and massive stone fence. Judging by the picture, such a “fence” is at least 3-5 meters high, maybe more.
4. Around the Tower of Babel there is a whole city with numerous houses (one- and two-story), rivers, bridges and huge fields and squares. It is impossible to assess the scale of the city at first glance.

Special details

“The Tower of Babel” - a painting by Bruegel the Elder contains Interesting Facts, which surprise many art critics and historians. For example, the artist created another painting from the “Tower of Babel” series, which has a very small format. The painting, like the two previous ones, was painted in oil in 1565.

Now Peter's third work is in Dresden art gallery. It is also interesting that, according to his personal biographer, the artist created not three paintings, but a whole series of works, which, unfortunately, have not survived.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder was inspired by his visits to Italy and his acquaintance with Giulio Clovio (miniaturist). main idea artist - to depict not just the life of a person, his culture, interests and mythology, but to convey true story humanity. Each work is filled with meaning.

The artist conveys the unity of fate, successfully interweaves life and death, and also delves into the life of each person.

To understand the essence and meaning of the works of Bruegel the Elder, you need to repeatedly watch and study his works. This requires a special understanding of the world and the universe as a whole, which the artist so ardently tried to tell us about.

Among all the works of world fine art, Bruegel's painting "The Tower of Babel" occupies a special place. Its main feature is that it is in accordance with what is depicted on it that most of humanity imagines what one of the most striking events of the Old Testament looked like.

From the history of a masterpiece

It is reliably known that the picture of the outstanding Dutch painter sixteenth century by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, was painted by him in 1563. It is this that art historians consider to be the first of two author’s versions of this work. The first of them is currently located in the capital of Austria, and the second is exhibited in the artist’s homeland, at the Boysmans van Beuningham Museum in Rotterdam. The second option is almost half the size of the first. In addition, it has a darker color scheme, it shows less characters. Both versions of the work were written oil paints on a wooden base.

What does the viewer see in the picture?

The painting “The Tower of Babel” by Pieter Bruegel reveals to the viewer a mysterious image of the legendary biblical structure, which is in the midst of its construction. But even in its unfinished state, the tower stuns the viewer’s imagination. Strongest impression It’s not so much the structure itself, soaring into the sky, but the engineering and architectural persuasiveness with which it is built.

All scrupulous elaboration of the smallest details is strictly subordinated overall plan. And this leaves no doubt that such a structure could actually be built. The tower represents a single bright architectural image, extremely daring in its design and convincing in its engineering implementation in practice. The reality of what is happening is emphasized by people working in construction. The painting “The Tower of Babel” captured the builders until the moment when the angry Almighty Creator, by his will, stopped the implementation of their project. They do not yet know that the Tower will not be completed, and are busily climbing up with building materials and tools. In the foreground you can see the ruler of Babylon Nimrod with his retinue. It was this figure who was considered the architect and leader of the construction of the Tower of Babel. It is interesting to note that the background landscape with the river and boats bears little resemblance ancient Mesopotamia, where, according to the original source, the tower was built. The artist clearly depicted his native Holland as a background.

Biblical basis of the plot

The most detailed description the painting "The Tower of Babel" can tell little to a viewer who is not aware of biblical history. Moreover, in that part of it, which in the Orthodox tradition is called the “Old Testament”. Bruegel's painting "The Tower of Babel" is inspired by the first of the Pentateuch of Moses. This Old Testament prophet is traditionally revered in Christianity along with the apostles and evangelists. This fundamental work underlies three world religions.

Of course, Bruegel's painting "The Tower of Babel" is dedicated to only one specific episode of this book. It tells how people dared to measure their creative power with God and set out to build Big city with a sky-high tower at its center. But the Almighty Creator stopped this intention by mixing the languages ​​of the townspeople, as a result of which they ceased to understand each other. And construction stopped. This parable illustrates the futility of human pride in relation to God.

Trip to Rome

The painting "Tower of Babel" shows the viewer a very large number of architectural details. It is difficult to imagine that all of them were taken by the artist from his own imagination. Moreover, in his homeland, Holland, there is no such architecture. And indeed, from historical sources It is known that in 1553 Pieter Bruegel the Elder visited Rome, where he made sketches of ancient architecture.

What first attracted his attention was the Colosseum. It is its outlines that are easily recognizable in the Tower of Babel. It resembles the Colosseum not only with its outer wall, but also with its entire carefully drawn internal structure. An attentive viewer will easily find many similarities in the arcade tiers, colonnades and double arches of both architectural structures- fictional and real. And to find the difference between them, you should look east, towards Ancient Mesopotamia.

Images of Ancient Mesopotamia

By many researchers ancient history It has been noted that the Tower of Babel, a painting by Pieter Bruegel, is largely inspired by the real life. unique culture this ancient country, located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, is characterized by just such architecture.

On the territory of modern Iraq you can still find ziggurats - ancient religious buildings. The principle of their construction is identical to the tower from Bruegel’s painting. The same spiral overpass along the outer wall leads to their top. It had a mystical meaning and ritual significance - people used it to ascend to heaven. Of course, in terms of size, no ziggurats can compete with the Tower of Babel. But they are located in the same area as described in the Old Testament. This coincidence cannot be accidental. Thus, the painting "Tower of Babel" reflects the architectural images of two ancient civilizations - Rome and Mesopotamia.

Reflections and refractions

The "Tower of Babel" has become one of the most striking and memorable images in history fine arts. Throughout its almost half a thousand year history, it has been copied, parodied and reinterpreted many times by other artists of different eras.

In particular, this image can be observed in the film adaptation famous novel Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". It was the painting “The Tower of Babel” by Pieter Bruegel that served as a source of inspiration for the film’s artists. The city of Minas Tirith, where one of the the most important episodes cult narrative.

September 5, 1569, four hundred and forty-four
years ago, Pieter Bruegel the Elder died.
A great artist of the past, he became
our contemporary, wise
interlocutor people of the 21st century.

Cities towers of Babel,
Having become proud, we exalt again,
And the God of the city on the arable land
Ruins, interfering with the word.
V. Mayakovsky

What is the Tower of Babel - a symbol of the unity of people all over the planet or a sign of their disunity? Let's remember the biblical story. The descendants of Noah, who spoke the same language, settled in the land of Shinar (Shinar) and decided to build a city and a tower high to heaven. According to people's plans, it was supposed to become a symbol of human unity: “let us make a sign for ourselves, so that we are not scattered across the face of the whole earth.” God, seeing the city and the tower, reasoned: “now nothing will be impossible for them.” And he put an end to the daring act: he mixed languages ​​so that the builders could no longer understand each other, and scattered people around the world.

(C)(C)
Etemenanki Ziggurat. Reconstruction. 6th century BC.

This story appears in the biblical text as an inserted novella. Chapter 10 of the book of Genesis details the genealogy of the descendants of Noah, from whom “the nations spread throughout the earth after the flood.” Chapter 11 begins with the story of obashena, but from the 10th verse the interrupted theme of the genealogy is resumed: “this is the genealogy of Shem.”

Mosaic in the Palatine Chapel. Palermo, Sicily. 1140-70

The dramatic legend of the Babylonian pandemonium, full of concentrated dynamics, seems to break the calm epic narrative and seems more modern than the text that follows and precedes it. However, this impression is deceptive: Bible scholars believe that the legend about the tower arose later than the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e., i.e. almost 1000 years before the oldest layers of biblical texts were formalized in writing.

So did the Tower of Babel really exist? Yes, and not even alone! Reading further in Genesis chapter 11, we learn that Terah, Abraham's father, lived in Ur, the largest city in Mesopotamia. Here, in the fertile valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. there was a powerful kingdom of Sumer and Akkad (by the way, scientists decipher the biblical name “Shennaar” as “Sumer”). Its inhabitants erected ziggurat temples in honor of their gods - stepped brick pyramids with a sanctuary on top. Built around the 21st century. BC e. the three-tiered ziggurat in Ureva, 21 meters high, was a truly grandiose building for its time. Perhaps the memories of this “stairway to heaven” were preserved for a long time in the memory of the Jewish nomads and formed the basis of an ancient legend.

Construction of the Tower of Babel.
Mosaic of the Cathedral in Montreal, Sicily. 1180s

Many centuries after Farrai and his relatives left Ur and went to the land of Canaan, Abraham's distant descendants were destined not only to see the ziggurats, but also to participate in their construction. In 586 BC. e. the king of Babylonia, Nebuchadnezzar II, conquered Judea and drove captives into his power - almost the entire population of the kingdom of Judah. ​​Nebuchadnezzar was not only a cruel conqueror, but also a great builder: under him, many wonderful buildings were erected in the capital of the country, Babylon, and among them the ziggurat of Etemenanki (“House of Foundation” heaven and earth"), dedicated to the supreme god of the city, Marduk. The seven-tiered temple, 90 meters high, was built by the captives of the Babylonian king from different countries, in including the Jews.

Construction of the Tower of Babel.
Mosaic in the Cathedral of San Marco, Venice. Late 12th - early 13th centuries.

Master of the Bedford Book of Hours. France.
Miniature "Tower of Babel". 1423-30

In the European art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance we will not find significant works with a subject that interests us: these are mainly mosaics and book miniatures - genre scenes that are interesting to today's viewer as sketches of medieval life. Carefully, with sweet naivety, the artists depict the bizarre tower of diligent builders.

Gerard Horenbout. Netherlands.
"Tower of Babel" from the Grimani Breviary. 1510s

The legend of the Tower of Babel received a worthy interpreter only at the end Renaissance, in the middle of the 16th century, when the biblical story attracted the attention of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Very little is known about the life of the great Dutch artist. Researchers of his work “calculate” the biography of the master, studying indirect evidence, peering into every detail of his paintings.

Lucas van Valckenborch. Netherlands.
Tower of Babel. 1568

Bruegel’s works on biblical themes speak volumes: he more than once turned to subjects that were rarely chosen by artists of that time, and what is most remarkable, he interpreted them based not on an established tradition, but on his own, original understanding of the texts. This suggests that Pieter Bruegel, who came from a peasant family, knew Latin well enough to independently read biblical stories, including the tale of the Tower of Babel.

Unknown German artist. Tower of Babel. 1590

The legend of the tower seemed to attract the artist: he dedicated three works to it. The earliest of them has not survived. We only know that it was a miniature on ivory (the most valuable material!), which belonged to the famous Roman miniaturist Giulio Clovio. Bruegel lived in Rome during his Italian travels in late 1552 and early 1553. But was the miniature created precisely during this period by order of Clovio? Perhaps the artist painted it back in his homeland and brought it to Rome as an example of his skill. This question remains unanswered, as does the question of which of the following two paintings was painted earlier - the small one (60x74 cm), stored in the Rotterdam Boijmans van Benningen Museum, or the large one (114x155 cm), the most famous, from the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Some art historians very cleverly prove that the Rotterdam painting preceded the Viennese one, others no less convincingly argue that the Viennese one was created first. In any case, Bruegel again turned to the theme of the Tower of Babel about ten years after his return from Italy: the large painting was painted in 1563, the small one a little earlier or a little later.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Small" Tower of Babel. OK. 1563

The architecture of the Rotterdam tower clearly reflects the artist’s Italian impressions: the similarity of the building with the Roman Colosseum is obvious. Bruegel, unlike his predecessors who depicted the tower as rectangular, makes the grandiose stepped building round and emphasizes the motif of arches. However, it is not the resemblance between the Bruegel Tower and the Colosseum that strikes the viewer first of all.

Roman Coliseum .

The artist’s friend, the geographer Abraham Ortelius, said of Bruegel: “he wrote a lot of things that were considered impossible to convey.” Ortelius’s words can be fully attributed to the painting from Rotterdam: the artist depicted not just a tall, powerful tower - its scale is prohibitive, incomparable to a human one, it surpasses all imaginable measures. The tower “with its head to the heavens” rises above the clouds and in comparison with the surrounding landscape - the city, the harbor, the hills - seems somehow blasphemously huge. With its volume it tramples the proportionality of the earthly order and violates divine harmony.

But there is no harmony in the tower itself. It seems that the builders spoke to each other in different languages ​​from the very beginning of work: otherwise why did they erect arches and windows above them? Even in the lower tiers, neighboring cells differ from each other, and the higher the tower, the more noticeable the discrepancy. And on the sky-high peak, complete chaos reigns. In Bruegel’s interpretation, the Lord’s punishment - confusion of languages ​​- did not overtake people overnight; misunderstanding was inherent in the builders from the very beginning, but still did not interfere with the work until it reached some critical limit.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Small" Tower of Babel. Fragment..

The Tower of Babel in this painting by Bruegel will never be completed. When looking at her, I remember the expressive word from religious and philosophical treatises: abandonment by God. Human ants are still swarming here and there, ships are still mooring in the harbor, but the feeling of the meaninglessness of the whole undertaking, the doom of human efforts does not leave the viewer. The tower emanates desolation, the picture - hopelessness: the proud plan of people to ascend to heaven is pleasing to God.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Big" Tower of Babel. 1563

Let us now turn to the great Tower of Babel. In the center of the picture is the same stepped cone with many entrances. The appearance of the tower has not changed significantly: we again see arches and windows of different sizes, an architectural absurdity at the top. As in the small picture, the city stretches to the left of the tower, and the port to the right. However, this tower is completely proportionate to the landscape. Its bulk grows out of the coastal rock, it rises above the plain, like a mountain, but the mountain, no matter how high it is, remains part of the familiar earthly landscape.

The tower does not look abandoned at all - on the contrary, work is in full swing here! People are busily scurrying around everywhere, materials are being transported, wheels of construction machines are turning, ladders are placed here and there, temporary sheds are perched on the ledges of the tower. With amazing accuracy and true knowledge of the matter, Bruegel depicts contemporary construction technology.

The picture is full of movement: the city lives at the foot of the tower, the port is seething. In the foreground we see a wave of current, truly Bruegelian genre scene: the shock construction site of all times and peoples is visited by the authorities - the biblical king Nimrod, on whose order, according to legend, the tower was erected. They are in a hurry to clear the way for him, stonemasons fall, the retinue anxiously catches the expression on the face of the arrogant ruler...

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The "Big" Tower of Babel.
Fragment. King Nimrod with his retinue.

However, this is the only scene imbued with irony, of which Bruegel was a subtle master. The artist depicts the work of the builders with great sympathy and respect. And how could it be otherwise: after all, he is the son of the Netherlands, a country where, in the words of the French historian Hippolyte Taine, people knew how to “do the most boring things without boredom,” where ordinary prosaic work was respected no less, and maybe even more, than sublime heroic work impulse.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Big" Tower of Babel. Fragment.

However, what is the meaning of this work? After all, if you look at the top of the tower, it becomes obvious that the work
clearly reached a dead end. But note that the construction covers the lower tiers, which, logically, should have
be already completed. It seems that, having despaired of building a “tower as high as heaven,” people began to take more
a concrete and feasible task - they decided to better equip that part of it, so that it would be closer to the ground, to reality,
to everyday life.

Or maybe some “participants in the joint project” have abandoned construction, while others continue to work,
and the confusion of languages ​​is not a hindrance to them. One way or another, one gets the feeling that the Tower of Babel in the Viennese painting is destined to be built forever. Thus, from time immemorial, overcoming mutual misunderstanding and enmity, the people of Earth have built the tower of human civilization. And they will not stop building as long as this world stands, “and nothing will be impossible for them.”