The Tower of Babel (1563), by
Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, is an oil painting on wood. The artist
chose to set the tower in Belgium rather than in the plains of Mesopotamia,
which was the location of the tower according to the Bible. The
arches-within-arches construction of Bruegel’s version of the tower was taken
from the artist’s studies of the Colosseum in Rome.
