Bruegel Paints the Tower of Babel
1561
The Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder completed an enormous panel of the Tower of Babel, ringed by spiraling construction ramps and tiny stone cutters. Tiny ants of workmen crawled over its crumbling terraces. It was a picture of hubris painted for Antwerp, the most cosmopolitan trading city in Europe.
In context
Also in 1561 (2 other events on record)
- Scotland Adopts the Reformation · Europe · Religion
- Conspiracy of Amboise · Europe · Politics
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Culture
- Before: 1555: Tobacco Seeds Reach Europe
- After: 1563: Escorial Begun
Era
Renaissance (1501–1650), one of 715 events from that era on Saeculum.