Peter Bruegel senior. Babylonian Tower - Art History

September 5, 1569, four hundred forty four years ago, Peter Bruegel senior died. The great artist of the past, he became our contemporary, a wise companion for people of the 21st century.

Cities Babylonian towers,
Burnt, we raise again,
And the god of the city on Pashny
Rushit, having a word.

V. Mayakovsky

What is the Babylonian Tower - the symbol of the unity of people of the entire planet or the sign of their disunity? Recall the biblical legend. The descendants of Noah, who spoke in the same language, settled in the land of Sennar (Shinar) and decided to build a city and tower tall to heaven. According to the plan of people, she had to become a symbol of human unity: "We will make a sign, so that we did not dissipate the face of the whole earth." God, seeing the city and the tower, judged: "Now nothing impossible for them." And he put an end to the bold act: mixed languages \u200b\u200bso that the builders stop understanding each other, and scattered people in the world.

ETEMENANK ZIKKUAT. Reconstruction. 6 c. BC.

This story looks in the biblical text as a plug-in novel. In the 10th chapter of the Book "Genesis" detailed the pedigree of the descendants of Noah, from which the peoples on the ground spread after the Flood ". Chapter 11 begins with a story about the tower, however, from the 10th verse, the interrupted the theme of the pedigree is resumed: "Here is a sima"

Mosaic in the chapel of the Palatina. Palermo, Sicily. 1140-70.

The dramatic, complete concentrated dynamics of the legend about the Babylonian pussy seems to break the calm epic story, seems more modern than the next and preceding text. However, this impression is deceptive: the Bible researchers believe that the tower of the tower arose no later than the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e., i.e. Almost 1000 years before the oldest layers of biblical texts were decorated in writing.

So did the Babylonian Tower exist? Yes, and not even alone! Reading further chapter 11 of the book "Genesis", we learn that Farra, Father Abraham, lived in ure, the largest city of Mesopotamia. Here, in the fertile valley of the Tiger rivers and Euphrates, at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. There was a powerful kingdom of Sumer and Akkada (by the way, the biblical name "Sennar" scientists decipher as "Sumer"). His inhabitants were erected in honor of their gods temples-zikkurats - stepped brick pyramids with a sanctuary on top. Built in about the XXI century. BC e. Three-tier zigarat in ure 21 meter height was truly a truly grand construction. Perhaps the memories of this "staircase in the sky" are long preserved in the memory of the jews of nomads and formed the basis of an ancient legend.

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

After a few centuries, after Farra and his Raisses left the UR and went to the land of Canaan, the distant descendants of Abraham were destined to not only see zigkurats, but also to participate in their construction. In 586 BC e. The king of Bavonia Nebuchadnezzar II conquered Judea and hijacked the prisoners in his power - almost the entire population of the Jewish kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar was not only a cruel conqueror, but also a great builder: With it, in the capital of the country, Babylon was erected by many wonderful buildings, and among them - the sikkurat of the ETEMENANK ("House of the foundation of the sky and the earth"), dedicated to the Supreme God of the city of Marduk. The seedrage church of 90 meters was built by the prisoners of the Babylonian king from different countries, including the Jews.

Construction of the Babylonian Tower.
Mosaic in the Cathedral of San Marco, Venice.
KON.12-NCH.13 centuries.

Historians and archaeologists have gathered enough evidence to claim with confidence: ETEMENANK ZIKCUAT and other similar buildings Babylonians became the protothes of the legendary tower. The final editorship of the biblical legend of the Babylonian pilottenization and mixing of languages, which took up after the return of Jews from captivity to his homeland, reflected their recent real impressions: a crowded city, a multi-time crowd, the construction of the Giant zikcurats. Even the name "Babylon" (Bavel), which comes from the Westernsmit "Bab Ilu" and means "Gate of God", Jews translated as "Mixing", from a similar hearing Hebrew word Balal (mixed): "Therefore, it is given the name Babylon, for there Mixed the Lord of the whole land. "

Master "Character Bedford". France.
Miniature "Babylonian Tower". 1423-30.

In the European art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, we will not find significant works on the plot of interest: basically it is mosaic and book miniatures - genre sketches, interesting to today's viewer as sketches of medieval life. Carefully, with a pretty naivety, artists are a bizarre tower and diligent builders.

Gerard Harenboout. Netherlands.
"Babylonian tower" from the brumaria Grimani. 1510th.

A worthy interpreter of the Tale of the Babylonian Tower received only on the outcome of the Renaissance, in the middle of the XVI century, when the biblical plot attracted the attention of Peter of the Older Breygel. There is very little about the life of the Great Netherlands artist. The researchers of his work "calculate" the biography of the master, studying indirect evidence, peering into every detail of his paintings.

Lucas Van Falkenborch. Netherlands.
Babylonian tower. 1568

Breygel's work on biblical topics talk about many: he has repeatedly applied to the plots, which rarely chose artists of the time, and that the most remarkable, interpreted them, relying on the well-established tradition, but on their own, original understanding of texts. This gives reason to assume that Peter Bruegel, a leaving of the peasant family, knew Latin well enough to read biblical stories on his own, and among them - the tale of the Babylonian Tower.

Unknown German artist.
Babylonian tower. 1590

The legend of the tower as if the artist attracted: he dedicated her three works. The earliest of them is not preserved. It is only known that it was a miniature on ivory (the most valuable material!), Belonged to the famous Roman miniaturist Julio Klovio. Bruegel lived in Rome during his Italian journey at the end of 1552 - early 1553. But was there a miniature created in this period on the order of the caulio? Perhaps the artist wrote her still in his homeland and brought to Rome as a sample of his skill. This question remains unanswered, as well as the question of which of the two of the following pictures was written before - Small (60x74cm), stored in the Rotterdam Museum of Humanis Wang Benningen, or Big (114x155cm), the most famous, art gallery of artistic and historical Museum in Vienna. Some art historians prove very withered that the Rotterdam painting was preceded by Vienna, others no less convincingly argue that first was created Vienna. In any case, Bruegel again turned to the topic of the Babylonian tower about ten years after returning from Italy: a large picture was written in 1563, Small - somewhat earlier or a little later.

Peter Bruegel senior. "Small" Babylonian tower. OK. 1563

In the architecture of the Rotterdam painting tower, the Italian experience of the artist was clearly reflected: the similarity of the construction with the Roman Coliseum is obvious. Bruegel, unlike its predecessors depicting a rectangular tower, makes a grand stepped building round, emphasizes the motive arches. However, not the similarity of the Brueglevskaya Tower with the Colossee is striking the viewer first of all.

Roman Coliseum.

A friend of the artist, Geographer Abraham Ortelus, said about Breiglele: "He wrote a lot of things that it was thought that it was impossible to convey." The words of Ortelus can be fully attributed to the picture from Rotterdam: the artist portrayed not just a high powerful tower - its scale is being patched, incomparable with human, he surpasses all imaginable measurements. The Tower "Growing to Heaven" is taken above the clouds and in comparison with the surrounding landscape - the city, the harbor, hills - it seems some kind of blasphemous. It tramples its volumes the commensuity of the earthly defendant, violates the Divine Harmony.

But there is no harmony and in the tower itself. It seems that the builders spoke each other in different languages \u200b\u200bfrom the very beginning of the work: otherwise, why did they build arches and windows over them who in what is much? Even in the lower tiers, neighboring cells differ from each other, and the higher the tower, the more visible disorder. And on the transcendent top reigns full chaos. In the interpretation of Breygel, the Lord's punishment - the mixing of languages \u200b\u200b- the outbreak of people is not overnight; Misunderstanding from the very beginning was inherent to builders, but still did not bother the work until he reached some critical limit.

Peter Bruegel senior. "Small" Babylonian tower. Fragment.

The Babylonian Tower on this picture of Breygel will never be completed. When looking at her, an expressive word is remembered from religious and philosophical treatises: Bogobilia. Still sooped here and there are ants, people, they stick to the harbor ships, but the feeling of meaninglessness of all undertakings, the doomes of the efforts of human do not leave the viewer. From the tower blows abandoned, from the picture - hopelessness: the proud idea of \u200b\u200bpeople to raise the heavens is not pleasing to God.

Peter Bruegel senior. "Big" Babylonian tower. 1563

We now turn to the big "Babylonian tower." In the center of the picture - the same step cone with many inputs. The appearance of the tower has not changed significantly: we see the solid-caliber arches and windows, the architectural Nausecian on the top. As in a small picture, the city spread over to the left of the tower, right - the port. However, this tower is completely proportioned by the landscape. Her romance grows out of the coastal cliff, she sniffs over the plain, like a mountain, but after all the mountain, no matter how high it, it remains part of the usual earthly landscape.

The tower does not look abandoned - on the contrary, work boils here! Throughout, the people are delivered everywhere, materials are brought, the wheels of building machines are rotated, the stairs are arranged there, the Saraikes-Towards are paced. With amazing accuracy and true knowledge of the case depicts Bruegel to the modern construction technique.

The picture is full of movement: the city lives at the foot of the tower, the port is boil. In the foreground, we see the wave the relevant, truly Breyghelev genre scene: the impact building of all times and peoples attend the bosses - the Biblical Tsar of Nimrod, on the order of which, according to legend, was erected by the tower. He is in a hurry to free the road, the Kamenotees fall in the NIC, the retinue will catch the expression of the face of Chvlyvy Vladyka ...

Peter Bruegel senior. "Big" Babylonian tower.
Fragment. Tsar Nimrod with a retinue.

However, this is the only scene imbued with irony, the subtle master of which was Bruegel. The work of the builders artist depicts with great sympathy and respect. And how can it be otherwise: after all, he is the son of the Netherlands, the country, where, in the expression of the French historian, the Tan, people were able to "without boredom to do the most boring things," where ordinary prosaic work was counted no less, but maybe even more than Hanging heroic gust.

Peter Bruegel senior. "Big" Babylonian tower. 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 went into a dead end. But we note - the construction covers the lower tiers, which, according to the logic of things, should have been completed. It seems that desperate to build a "tower tower tall to heaven," people took up more specific and satisfying business - they decided to better arrange the one part of it, which is closer to Earth, to reality, to everyday life.

Or maybe some "joint project participants" retreated from construction, and others continue to work, and the mixing of languages \u200b\u200bthem is not a hindrance. One way or another, there is a feeling that the Babylonian tower is destined to build forever in the Vienna picture. So impact of centuries, overcoming mutual misunderstanding and enmity, the people of the Earth are erected by the Tower of Human Civilization. And they will not cease to erect while this world is worth, "there will be nothing impossible for them."

Plot

The picture is based on the plot from the first book of Moses about the construction of the Babylonian Tower, which was found to people to reach his top of the sky: " Build yourself a city and tower tall to heaven" To pacify their pride, God mixed their tongues, so they could no longer understand each other and scattered them throughout the Earth, so the construction was not completed. The moral of this picture is the beaches of the whole earthly and the vainness of the strides of mortals to compare with the Lord.

"Babylonian Tower" (Vienna)

The Babylonian Tower of Breygel quite responds to the traditions of the picturesque image of this biblical parable: there is an amazing imagination of the scale of construction, the presence of a huge number of people and construction equipment.

People depicted in the picture - workers, stone - seem very small and reminded with their diligence ants. A much larger than the figure of the inspection object of Nimrod - the legendary conqueror of Babylon in the II millennium BC. er, according to the tradition of the tower that was considered the head of the tower, and his suits in the lower left corner of the picture. Low, on the eastern manner bowlotes of the Nimode - tribute to the origin of parables.

It seems interesting that according to Bruegel in the failure, comprehended by such a "large-scale project", which are not suddenly arising language barriers, but mistakes made in the construction process. At first glance, a huge structure seems strong enough, but at the closest consideration it is clear that all the tiers are laid unevenly, the lower floors are either unfinished, or they are already crumbling, the building itself is rapped towards the city, and the prospects for the entire project are very sad.

"Babylonian Tower" (Rotterdam)

Presumably the same 1563 year dated and a smaller picture from the Boimans-Van Bengenen Museum, the so-called " Small Babylonian Tower" The historians of art have no consensus about whether this picture is written somewhat later or a few earlier "Big Babylonian Tower". Here the construction has already been suspended: people are not visible at all. Unlike the "Big Babylonian Tower", the picture is made in the dark color scheme and looks rather gloomy.

• An option of a smaller format of the Babylonian Tower is located in the Dresden Art Gallery. Perhaps Bruegel wrote more copies to the popular plot, which, however, was not preserved before our time. So, for example, in the guarantees of the Antwerp merchant Niklase Jonghelinka, Dated 1565, is mentioned another "Babylonian tower" of Bruegel.

• Allyusia on the "Babylonian Tower" of Bruegel is the image of the city of Minas Tirit in the film "The Lord of the Rings".
• Fragment of the picture was used in the design of the cover of the Single group of Kipelov "Babylon"

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Watch what is "Babylonian Tower (Picture)" in other dictionaries:

Babylonian Tower Babylon Tower Babylon Tower (Painting) Babylonian Tower (Tale) Babylonian Tower (TV series) Babylonian tower (game) Notes Babylonian tower ... Wikipedia

And the mixing of languages, two legends about the ancient Babylon (combined in the canonical text of the Bible in a single story): 1) on the construction of the city and the mixing of languages \u200b\u200band 2) on the construction of the tower and scattering people. These legends are confined to the "beginning of history" ... ... Encyclopedia mythology

Babylonian tower. Senior Braisel Senior Work Pattern. Building, which, on biblical legend (Gen. 11: 1 9), the descendants of Noah erected in the land of Sennar (Babylonia) to achieve heaven. God, angry with the intent and actions of builders, ... ... Encyclopedia Color

Babylonian tower - Babylonian pussy. Babylonian tower. Picture of P. Breygel senior. 1563. Museum of Art History. Vein. Babel. Babylonian tower. Picture of P. Breygel senior. 1563. Museum of Art History. Vein. Babylonian tower in ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary "World History"

This term also has other meanings, see the Babylonian Tower (Values). Coordinates: 32 ° 32'11 "s. sh. 44 ° 25'15 "in. d. / 32.536389 ° С. sh. 44.420833 ° C. D ... Wikipedia

Peter Bruegel Senior is known as the Netherlands painter. In his works, Peter preferred to portray genre scenes and landscapes, ignoring portrait images.

"The Babylonian Tower" is one of the famous works of the Senior Bruegel, based on the book of Moses. However, Peter wrote not one picture with a similar plot, but three. At the moment, only two works are preserved, both are called the "Babylonian Tower" and dated 1563, but their ways were separated. The first canvas is stored in Vienna in the Museum of Arts, and the second is in Rotterdam in the Museum of Bumanza-Van Bengen.

As ideally, the creator of the picture was relied on the biblical history. She told about those times when all people spoke in the same language. At one fine moment, they decided to build a tower to climb as high as possible. Then God decided to prevent people, confusing their languages. After that, people stopped understanding each other, and the construction of the Great Tower became impossible.

However, on the idea of \u200b\u200bPeter, construction was not crowned with the success of the workers themselves. In the pictures it can be seen that parts of the structure do not create a holistic composition: the windows and arches of different sizes, the total dimensions are not met, the tiers are built crookedly, in some places the tower began to collapse on their own, all the construction is curved towards the closest settlement.

The first canvas that is now stored in Vienna looks bright and friendly when the second job is filled with dark paints with a gloomy atmosphere. If we compare in detail, both paintings reflect a large-scale building, which at first glance seems reliable and strong, but with a detailed study, all errors become visible.

Bruegel Senior depicted a tower height in seven floors, and the eighth in the process of creating. All construction is surrounded by lifts, construction stairs, construction forests, cranes. On the one hand, the Babylonian Tower is located the seaport, even visible ships are visible, a city with various buildings spread on the other.

People are present on both canvases, but the artist portrayed them in different ways. In a bright picture, which is now posted in the museum of arts, people are more pronounced and noticeable when the human figures are practically fused on the painting from Rotterdam on the background of the tower scale.

The "Babylonian Tower" is not so simple, as it seems at first glance. Bruegel was inspired by the Colossee in Rome. Initially, he was perceived as a symbol of the rejection of Christianity, but the Creator himself considered the Colosseum by the place of rejection of Protestants, to whom he believed. His attitude to the Catholic faith, Peter reinforces the construction in the Babylonian tower, it looks like the Castle of the Holy Angel in Rome, where the Roman dads were gathered.

• Mention of three paintings reached this day, one of which was destroyed. However, some scientists believe that the "Babylonian Tower" series had more cauldron with the same type of plot.
• In the film "The Lord of the Rings" used allusion on the "Babylonian Tower" - the city of Minas Tyrit.
• In paintings, construction is located in stages: manual work, the use of poles for moving plates, blocks, lifts of different power. This Peter showed stages of construction development, which made great steps forward.

"Babylonian tower", 1st option. 1564 year. Size 60x75 cm. Rotterdam, Museum of Bummans Wang Bengenna.

Peter Bruegel (Pieghel The Elder Or Bruegel) was a famous Flemish artist the most famous for his paintings with Flemish landscapes and scenes from the life of the peasants. He was born in 1525 (the exact date of unknown) year, presumably in the city of Breda (Netherlands Province). Little in 1569 in Brussels. The big impact on all the art of Peter Breygel Senior was Hieronim Bosch. In 1559, he removed the letter H from his last name and began to sign his paintings under the name Bruegel.

The legend of the tower as if the artist attracted: he dedicated her three works. The earliest of them is not preserved. The picture is based on the plot from the first book of Moses about the construction of the Babylonian tower, which was found by people to achieve his peak of the sky: "We will build a city and tower tall to heaven." To pacify their pride, God mixed their tongues, so they could no longer understand each other and scattered them throughout the Earth, so the construction was not completed.

Bruegel, unlike its predecessors depicting a rectangular tower, makes a grand stepped building round, emphasizes the motive arches. However, not the similarity of the Brueglevskaya Tower with the Colossee is striking the viewer first of all. Friend of the artist, geographer Abraham Ortelus, said about Breiglele:

"He wrote a lot of things about what it was believed that it was impossible to convey." The words of Ortelus can be fully attributed to the picture from Rotterdam: the artist portrayed not just a high powerful tower - its scale is being patched, incomparable with human, he surpasses all imaginable measurements. The Tower "Growing to Heaven" is taken above the clouds and in comparison with the surrounding landscape - the city, the harbor, hills - it seems some kind of blasphemous. It tramples its volumes the commensuity of the earthly defendant, violates the Divine Harmony. But there is no harmony and in the tower itself.

It seems that the builders spoke each other in different languages \u200b\u200bfrom the very beginning of the work: otherwise, why did they build arches and windows over them who in what is much? Even in the lower tiers, neighboring cells differ from each other, and the higher the tower, the more visible disorder. And on the transcendent top reigns full chaos.

In the interpretation of Breygel, the Lord's punishment - the mixing of languages \u200b\u200b- the outbreak of people is not overnight; Misunderstanding from the very beginning was inherent to builders, but still did not bother the work until his degree reached some critical limit. The Babylonian Tower on this picture of Breygel will never be completed. When looking at her, an expressive word is remembered from religious and philosophical treatises: Bogobilia.

The "Babylonian Tower" is one of the most famous paintings of the Great Netherlands artist (1525-1569). The canvas was written in 1563 (wood, butter). Currently is located in the Museum of Art History in Vienna. In the art of this painter there are a large number of masterpieces of world importance, but here Babylonian tower"Enjoying special honorable. Surely, many of you, having heard about the Babylonian Tower, represent it exactly what it is presented in the picture of Bruegel. All because it is a web published almost everywhere and everywhere, starting from Biblical content books and ending with textbooks for young children.

The plot of the benefits of the Babylonian Tower tells about the fact that people removed to reach the heavens and compare with God. To pacify their pride, God mixed up the languages \u200b\u200bof people, as a result of which they stopped understanding each other, and the construction could not continue further. People with different languages \u200b\u200bscattered around the world, and the tower was a symbol that speaks from any vainness to compare with God.

Senior Braisel Patter Fully covers the grandee of man's ideas. The tower is already built so high that it reaches clouds. The city spread out, and there are a large number of people on construction. The picture is very realistic and narrated. When studying the picture, it was found out that the Babylonian Tower of Bruegel took the Colosseum in Rome, which he saw during one of his trips. Plain, the sea, the buildings around the tower remind more of his native Netherlands. Little workers who work on the construction are more like ants who have been harvested to build the world's largest anthill in the world, and not to live in it, but in order to swee their own pride and show their exceptional superiority.

The painting is depicted and the Inspector Nimirol, which was considered the head of the construction of the tower. Here Bruegel tried to show a little other side of the construction failure. The tower was failed at all due to the fact that all languages \u200b\u200bwere mixed, but due to the fact that the fateful errors in the design were allowed. The whole building was built unevenly, the lower floors begin to collapse, and the tower itself begins to go aside and soon it is ready to fall completely.

There are two paintings by Peter Bruegel Elder on the plot of the Babylonian bath. The one is represented here, called a large Babylonian tower. The second is performed in a smaller size and therefore is called small. The small Babylonian tower is made in the dark colors and with the complete absence of people, as the construction has already been suspended.