The Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel

SK-A-2851

The Old Testament tells the story of the people of Babel who wanted to build a tower that would reach to heaven. God punished them for their pride: he confused their common language so they could no longer understand one another. This is one of the earliest painted depictions of this story; it also affords a fairly reliable glimpse of late medieval building practices.

S. Grieten, 'Het Torevn van Babel-schilderij in het Mauritshuis. Een illustratie van de relatie tussen de 15de-eeuwse miniatuur- en schilderkunst in den Nederlanden', Oud Holland 108 (1994), p. 109-119

painter: anoniem (possibly)

c. 1490

olieverf op paneel

height 20.5 cm x width 17.9 cm

purchase 1921-01

Public domain

…; from the dealer Nicolaas Beets, Amsterdam, fl. 4,500, to the museum, January 1921; on loan to the Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1924-97; on loan to the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, since 2003

• S. Grieten, 'Het Torevn van Babel-schilderij in het Mauritshuis. Een illustratie van de relatie tussen de 15de-eeuwse miniatuur- en schilderkunst in den Nederlanden', Oud Holland 108 (1994), p. 109-119
• P. Wescher, 'Sanders and Simon Bening and Gerard Horenbout', The Art Quarterly 9 (1946), p. 197

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/20015954