Tower Of Babel and Pieter Bruegel Painting by Paul Meijering

About "Tower Of Babel and Pieter Bruegel Painting"

by Paul Meijering

About the artwork

Realistic acrylic painting of The Tower of Babel and Pieter Bruegel, painted by the Dutch fine artist Paul Meijering - the original painting is 90 x 120 cm and part of a permanent collection.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Breugel or Breda, c. 1525-1530 - Brussels, 9 September 1569) was a painter who belonged to the Northern Renaissance. He was the father of Pieter Brueghel the Younger and of Jan Brueghel the Elder.

Influenced by Pieter Coecke, Bruegel painted with many allegories, for example in scenes of peasant life. Later, he also painted scenes inspired by classical antiquity and Biblical scenes. These include two paintings of the Tower of Babel.

All sorts of stories circulate about Bruegel. According to Karel van Mander, for instance, he often visited the countryside incognito to observe peasant life; hence his nickname 'Boerenbruegel'. Other sources believe he might have had heretical sympathies, which he would have incorporated in his paintings in a hidden way. Neither the first nor the second has been proven.

Bruegel is undoubtedly the most complete landscape painter of his time; no one else painted nature, throughout the seasons, so naturally, powerfully, precisely and multifaceted.

Now, it is widely believed that Bruegel was very much affected by the poverty-stricken and harsh existence of the rural population; a nickname "Folk Bruegel" would be more accurate than "Peasant Bruegel". Remarkably, even at his "peasant wedding" and "peasant dances" no one smiles. He was certainly Catholic but also a humanist, and he mercilessly criticised religious persecution in many works including setting up gallows in the landscape and often adding magpies (gossips, traitors).

Bruegel painted intensively for barely 10 years and it is believed that he only painted about 50 works, all of exceptional quality.