Pictures of Babylon. Tower of Babel

On September 5, 1569, four hundred and forty-four years ago, Pieter Bruegel the Elder died. A great artist of the past, he became our contemporary, a wise interlocutor of people of the 21st century.

Cities towers of Babel,
Having become proud, we exalt again,
And the God of the city on the arable land
Ruins, interfering with the word.

V. Mayakovsky

What is the Tower of Babel - a symbol of the unity of people all over the planet or a sign of their disunity? Let's remember the biblical story. The descendants of Noah, who spoke the same language, settled in the land of Shinar (Shinar) and decided to build a city and a tower high to heaven. According to people's plans, it was supposed to become a symbol of human unity: “let us make a sign for ourselves, so that we are not scattered across the face of the whole earth.” God, seeing the city and the tower, reasoned: “now nothing will be impossible for them.” And he put an end to the daring act: he mixed languages ​​so that the builders could no longer understand each other, and scattered people around the world.

Etemenanki Ziggurat. Reconstruction. 6th century BC.

This story appears in the biblical text as an inserted novella. Chapter 10 of the book of Genesis details the genealogy of the descendants of Noah, from whom “the nations spread throughout the earth after the flood.” Chapter 11 begins with the story of the tower, but from the 10th verse the interrupted theme of the genealogy is resumed: “this is the genealogy of Shem”

Mosaic in the Palatine Chapel. Palermo, Sicily. 1140-70

The dramatic legend of the Babylonian pandemonium, full of concentrated dynamics, seems to break the calm epic narrative and seems more modern than the text that follows and precedes it. However, this impression is deceptive: Bible scholars believe that the legend 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 formalized in writing.

So did the Tower of Babel really exist? Yes, and not even alone! As we read further in Genesis chapter 11, we learn that Terah, Abraham's father, lived in Ur, the largest city in Mesopotamia. Here, in the fertile valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. there was a powerful kingdom of Sumer and Akkad (by the way, scientists decipher the biblical name “Shennaar” as “Sumer”). Its inhabitants erected ziggurat temples in honor of their gods - stepped brick pyramids with a sanctuary on top. Built around the 21st century. BC e. the three-tiered ziggurat at Ur, 21 meters high, was a truly grandiose structure for its time. Perhaps the memories of this “stairway to heaven” were preserved for a long time in the memory of nomadic Jews and formed the basis of an ancient legend.

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

Many centuries after Terah and his relatives left Ur and went to the land of Canaan, the distant descendants of Abraham were destined not only to see the ziggurats, but also to participate in their construction. In 586 BC. e. King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia conquered Judea and drove captives into his kingdom - almost the entire population of the kingdom of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar was not only a cruel conqueror, but also a great builder: under him, many remarkable buildings were erected in the capital of the country, Babylon, and among them was the ziggurat of Etemenanki (“House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth”), dedicated to the supreme god of the city, Marduk. The seven-tier temple, 90 meters high, was built by captives of the Babylonian king from different countries, including Jews.

Construction of the Tower of Babel.
Mosaic in the Cathedral of San Marco, Venice.
Late 12th - early 13th centuries.

Historians and archaeologists have collected enough evidence to confidently say: the ziggurat of Etemenanki and other similar buildings of the Babylonians became the prototypes of the legendary tower. The final edition of the biblical tale about the Babylonian pandemonium and confusion of languages, which took shape after the Jews returned from captivity to their homeland, reflected their recent real impressions: a crowded city, a multilingual crowd, the construction of gigantic ziggurats. Even the name “Babylon” (Bavel), which comes from the West Semitic “bab ilu” and means “gate of God,” was translated by the Jews as “mixing,” from the similar-sounding Hebrew word balal (to mix): “Therefore the name Babylon was given to it, for there The Lord has confused the language of the whole earth.”

Master of the Bedford Book of Hours. France.
Miniature "Tower of Babel". 1423-30

In the European art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, we will not find significant works on the subject that interests us: these are mainly mosaics and book miniatures - genre scenes that are interesting to today's viewer as sketches of medieval life. The artists carefully depict the bizarre tower and diligent builders with sweet naivety.

Gerard Horenbout. Netherlands.
"Tower of Babel" from the Grimani Breviary. 1510s

The legend of the Tower of Babel received a worthy interpreter only at the end of the Renaissance, in the middle of the 16th century, when the biblical story attracted the attention of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Very little is known about the life of the great Dutch artist. Researchers of his work “calculate” the master’s biography, studying indirect evidence, peering into every detail of his paintings.

Lucas van Valckenborch. Netherlands.
Tower of Babel. 1568

Bruegel's works on biblical themes speak volumes: he more than once turned to subjects that were rarely chosen by artists of that time, and what is most remarkable, interpreted them based not on an established tradition, but on his own, original understanding of the texts. This suggests that Pieter Bruegel, who came from a peasant family, knew Latin well enough to independently read biblical stories, including the tale of the Tower of Babel.

Unknown German artist.
Tower of Babel. 1590

The legend of the tower seemed to attract the artist: he dedicated three works to it. The earliest of them has not survived. We only know that it was a miniature on ivory (the most valuable material!), which belonged to the famous Roman miniaturist Giulio Clovio. Bruegel lived in Rome during his Italian journey in late 1552 and early 1553. But was the miniature created during this period, commissioned by Clovio? Perhaps the artist painted it in his homeland and brought it to Rome as an example of his skill. This question remains unanswered, as well as the question of which of the following two paintings was painted earlier - the small one (60x74cm), stored in the Rotterdam Boijmans van Benningen Museum, or the large one (114x155cm), the most famous, from the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum museum in Vienna. Some art historians very cleverly prove that the Rotterdam painting preceded the Viennese one, others no less convincingly argue that the Viennese one was created first. In any case, Bruegel again turned to the theme of the Tower of Babel about ten years after returning from Italy: the large painting was painted in 1563, the small one a little earlier or a little later.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Small" Tower of Babel. OK. 1563

The architecture of the tower of the Rotterdam painting clearly reflected the artist’s Italian impressions: the similarity of the building with the Roman Colosseum is obvious. Bruegel, unlike his predecessors who depicted the tower as rectangular, makes the grandiose stepped building round and emphasizes the motif of arches. However, it is not the resemblance between Bruegel’s tower and the Colosseum that strikes the viewer first of all.

Roman Coliseum.

The artist’s friend, the geographer Abraham Ortelius, said of Bruegel: “he wrote a lot of things that were considered impossible to convey.” Ortelius’s words can be fully attributed to the painting from Rotterdam: the artist depicted not just a tall, powerful tower - its scale is prohibitive, incomparable to a human one, it surpasses all imaginable measures. The tower “with its head to heaven” rises above the clouds and in comparison with the surrounding landscape - the city, the harbor, the hills - seems somehow blasphemously huge. With its volume it tramples the proportionality of the earthly order and violates divine harmony.

But there is no harmony in the tower itself. It seems that the builders spoke to each other in different languages ​​from the very beginning of the work: otherwise why did they erect arches and windows above them at all costs? Even in the lower tiers, neighboring cells differ from each other, and the higher the tower, the more noticeable the discrepancy. And on the sky-high peak there is complete chaos. In Bruegel's interpretation, the Lord's punishment - confusion of languages ​​- did not overtake people overnight; misunderstanding was inherent in the builders from the very beginning, but still did not interfere with the work until it reached some critical limit.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Small" Tower of Babel. Fragment.

The Tower of Babel in this painting by Bruegel will never be completed. When looking at her, I remember an expressive word from religious and philosophical treatises: God-forsakenness. Human ants are still swarming here and there, ships are still mooring in the harbor, but the feeling of the meaninglessness of the whole undertaking, the doom of human efforts does not leave the viewer. The tower emanates desolation, the picture - hopelessness: the proud plan of people to ascend to heaven is not pleasing to God.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Big" Tower of Babel. 1563

Let us now turn to the great “Tower of Babel.” In the center of the picture is the same stepped cone with many entrances. The appearance of the tower has not changed significantly: we again see arches and windows of different sizes, an architectural absurdity at the top. As in the small picture, the city stretches to the left of the tower, and the port to the right. However, this tower is quite proportionate to the landscape. Its bulk grows out of the coastal rock, it rises above the plain, like a mountain, but the mountain, no matter how high it is, remains part of the familiar earthly landscape.

The tower does not look abandoned at all - on the contrary, work is in full swing here! People are busily scurrying about everywhere, materials are being transported, wheels of construction machines are turning, ladders are placed here and there, temporary sheds are perched on the ledges of the tower. With amazing accuracy and true knowledge of the matter, Bruegel depicts contemporary construction technology.

The picture is full of movement: the city lives at the foot of the tower, the port is seething. In the foreground we see a current, truly Bruegelian genre scene: the shock construction site of all times and peoples is visited by the authorities - the biblical king Nimrod, on whose order, according to legend, the tower was erected. They rush to clear the way for him, the stonemasons fall on their faces, the retinue tremblingly catches the expression on the face of the arrogant ruler...

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Big" Tower of Babel.
Fragment. King Nimrod with his retinue.

However, this is the only scene imbued with irony, of which Bruegel was a subtle master. The artist depicts the work of the builders with great sympathy and respect. And how could it be otherwise: after all, he is the son of the Netherlands, a country where, in the words of the French historian Hippolyte Taine, people knew how to “do the most boring things without boredom,” where ordinary prosaic work was respected no less, and maybe even more than sublime heroic impulse.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Big" Tower of Babel. 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 has clearly reached a dead end. But note that the construction covers the lower tiers, which, logically, should have already been completed. It seems that, having despaired of building a “tower as high as the heavens,” people took up a more concrete and feasible task - they decided to better equip that part of it that is closer to the ground, to reality, to everyday life.

Or maybe some “participants in the joint project” abandoned construction, while others continue to work, and mixing languages ​​is not a hindrance for them. One way or another, there is a feeling that the Tower of Babel in the Viennese painting is destined to be built forever. Thus, from time immemorial, overcoming mutual misunderstanding and enmity, the people of Earth have erected the tower of human civilization. And they will not stop building as long as this world stands, “and nothing will be impossible for them.”

Pieter Bruegel the Elder is known as a Dutch painter. In his works, Peter preferred to depict genre scenes and landscapes, while ignoring portraiture.

“The Tower of Babel” is one of the famous works of Bruegel the Elder, based on the book of Moses. However, Peter painted not one picture with a similar plot, but three. At the moment, only two works have survived, both are called “Tower of Babel” and dated 1563, but their paths have diverged. The first canvas is kept in Vienna at the Museum of Art, and the second in Rotterdam at the Boijmans-van Beuningen Museum.

As conceived by the creator, the paintings were based on biblical history. She talked about those times when all people spoke the same language. At one point they decided to build a tower to climb as high as possible. Then God decided to hinder people by confusing their languages. After this, people stopped understanding each other, and the construction of the great tower became impossible.

However, according to Peter's idea, the construction was not successful due to the fault of the workers themselves. The pictures show that parts of the structure do not create a coherent composition: windows and arches are of different sizes, the overall dimensions are not respected, the tiers are built crookedly, in some places the tower began to collapse on its own, the entire structure is crooked towards the nearest settlement.

The first painting, now kept in Vienna, looks bright and welcoming, while the second work is filled with dark colors and a gloomy atmosphere. If we compare the details, both pictures depict a large-scale construction, which at first glance seems reliable and strong, but upon detailed study, all the errors in the construction become visible.

Bruegel the Elder depicted a tower seven floors high, with an eighth in the process of being created. The entire structure is surrounded by lifts, construction ladders, scaffolding, and cranes. On one side of the Tower of Babel there is a seaport, you can even see moored ships, on the other there is a city with various buildings.

There are people on both canvases, but the artist depicted them differently. In the light painting, now housed in the Museum of Art, the people are more pronounced and visible, while in the painting from Rotterdam the human figures almost fade against the scale of the tower.

The “Tower of Babel” is not as simple as it seems at first glance. Bruegel was inspired by the Colosseum in Rome. Initially, it was perceived as a symbol of rejection of Christianity, but the creator himself considered the Colosseum to be a place of rejection of Protestants, to whom he considered himself. Peter reinforces his attitude towards the Catholic faith with the construction of the Tower of Babel - it is similar to the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, where the popes once gathered.

• Mentions of three paintings have survived to this day, one of which was destroyed. However, some scholars believe that the “Tower of Babel” series had more paintings with the same type of plot.
• The film “The Lord of the Rings” uses an allusion to the “Tower of Babel” - the city of Minas Tirith.
• In the paintings, construction is arranged in stages: manual labor, the use of poles to move slabs, blocks, lifts of varying degrees of power. With this, Peter showed the stages of development of construction, which has taken big steps forward.

Man is distinguished from animals by vanity, according to the 15th-century German philosopher Nicholas of Cusa. For thousands of years, vanity has poisoned our lives, but remains its driving principle. This is especially acutely felt in critical epochs: in the twentieth century or at the beginning of modern times - five centuries ago

Photo: GETTY IMAGES/FOTOBANK.COM

1. Tower. Architecturally, Bruegel's Tower of Babel replicates the Roman Colosseum (only it consists of seven floors rather than three). The Colosseum was considered a symbol of the persecution of Christianity: the first followers of Jesus were martyred there during Antiquity. In Bruegel’s interpretation, the entire Habsburg Empire was such a “Colosseum”, where hateful Catholicism was forcefully implanted and Protestants - true Christians in the artist’s understanding - were brutally persecuted (the Netherlands was a Protestant country).

2. Castle. Inside, as if in the heart of the tower, the artist places a building copying the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome. This castle served as the residence of the popes in the Middle Ages and was perceived as a symbol of the power of the Catholic faith

3. Nimrod. According to Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, Nimrod was the very king of Babylon who ordered the construction of the tower to begin. In history, Nimrod left a memory of himself as a cruel and proud ruler. Bruegel depicts him in the guise of a European monarch, referring to Charles V. Hinting at the eastern despotism of Charles, the artist places kneeling masons next to him: they knelt down on both knees, as was customary in the East, while in Europe they stood on both knees in front of the monarch one knee.

4. Antwerp. The pile of houses closely huddled together is not only a realistic detail, but also a symbol of earthly vanity.

5. Craftsmen. “Bruegel shows the development of construction technology,” says Kirill Chuprak. - In the foreground it demonstrates the use of manual labor. Using hammers and chisels, craftsmen process stone blocks

7. At the level of the first floor of the tower there is a crane with a boom, lifting loads using rope and block.

8 . A little to the left is a more powerful crane. Here the rope is wound directly onto a drum driven by the power of the legs.

9. Above, on third floor, - a heavy-duty crane: it has a boom and is driven by the power of the legs.”

10. Huts. According to Kirill Chuprak, “several huts located on the ramp meet the construction requirements of the time, when each team acquired its own “temporary hut” right on the construction site
site."

11. Ships. Ships entering the port are depicted with sails retracted - a symbol of hopelessness and disappointed hopes.

Until the 16th century, the theme of the Tower of Babel attracted almost no attention from European artists. However, after 1500 the situation changed. The Dutch masters were especially fascinated by this subject. According to St. Petersburg artist and art critic Kirill Chuprak, the surge in popularity of the story about the legendary building among the Dutch “was facilitated by the atmosphere of economic recovery in rapidly growing cities, such as, for example, Antwerp. About a thousand foreigners lived in this bazaar city and were treated with suspicion. In a situation where people were not united by one church, but Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans and Anabaptists lived intermingled, a general feeling of vanity, insecurity and anxiety grew. Contemporaries found parallels to this unusual situation precisely in the biblical tale of the Tower of Babel.”

The Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1563 also turned to the popular plot, but interpreted it differently. According to Marina Agranovskaya, an art critic from the German city of Emmendingen, “it seems that in Bruegel’s painting the builders spoke to each other in different languages ​​from the very beginning of the work: otherwise why did they erect arches and windows above them at all times?” It is also interesting that in Bruegel it is not God who destroys the building, but time and the mistakes of the builders themselves: the tiers are laid unevenly, the lower floors are either unfinished or are already collapsing, and the building itself is tilting.

The answer is that in the image of the Tower of Babel, Bruegel represented the fate of the empire of the Catholic kings from the Habsburg dynasty. This is where there really was a mixture of languages: in the first half of the 16th century, under Charles V, the Habsburg empire included the lands of Austria, Bohemia (Czech Republic), Hungary, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. However, in 1556, Charles abdicated, and this huge state, unable to withstand its own multiculturalism and multiethnicity, began to disintegrate into separate lands (Spain and the Netherlands went to the son of Charles V, Philip II of Habsburg). Thus, Bruegel shows, according to Kirill Chuprak, “not grandiose, large-scale construction, but the futile attempts of people to complete a building that has exceeded a certain size limit,” likening the work of architects to the work of politicians.

ARTIST
Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Around 1525- Born in the village of Brögel near Breda in the Netherlands.
1545–1550 - Studied painting with the artist Peter Cook van Aelst in Antwerp.
1552–1553 - Traveled around Italy, studying Renaissance painting.
1558 - Created the first significant work - “The Fall of Icarus”.
1559–1562 - Worked in the manner of Hieronymus Bosch (“The Fall of Angels”, “Mad Greta”, “The Triumph of Death”).
1563 - Wrote “The Tower of Babel.”
1565 - Created a series of landscapes.
1568 - Under the impression of the Catholic terror carried out by the troops of Philip II in the Netherlands, he wrote his last works: “The Blind”, “The Magpie on the Gallows”, “The Cripples”.
1569 - Died in Brussels.

Illustration: BRIDGEMAN/FOTODOM

Among all the works of world fine art, Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s painting “The Tower of Babel” occupies a special place. Political satire, anti-Catholic position - the artist encrypted many symbols in the picture on a popular biblical theme.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder created his famous painting in 1563. It is known that the artist painted at least one more painting on the same subject. True, it is much smaller in size than the first one, and it is written in a darker color scheme.

The artist based the painting on a biblical story about the origin of different languages ​​and peoples. According to legend, after the Great Flood, the descendants of Noah settled in the land of Shinar. But they did not live in peace, and people decided to build a tower so high that it would reach heaven to God. The Almighty was against people considering themselves equal to Him, so He forced everyone to speak different languages. As a result, no one could understand each other, which is why the construction of the Tower of Babel stopped.

There are many small details in the picture. If you pay attention to the lower left corner, you can see a small group of people there. It is King Nimrod and his retinue approaching, and the rest fall on their faces. According to legend, it was he who led the construction of the Tower of Babel.

Researchers believe that King Nimrod is the personification of the despot King Charles V of the Habsburgs. Representatives of this dynasty ruled in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Spain, etc. But after Charles V abdicated the crown, the entire empire slowly but surely began to disintegrate.

Same with the tower. The artist himself more than once focused on the fact that if the asymmetrical tilting Tower of Babel had been built wisely and without making mistakes, then the building would have been completed and would not have collapsed.

It’s curious, but the shores in the picture are more reminiscent not of Mesopotamia, but of the artist’s native Holland. The rapid urbanization of Antwerp has led to the city being flooded with people of different religions. These were Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans and many others. They were no longer united by one faith. Many art critics interpret this approach as a mockery of the Catholic Church, which no longer controlled everyone around it. In fact, the cities became real disunited “Towers of Babel.”

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, as a faithful follower of the ideas of Hieronymus Bosch, encrypted anti-Catholic views and political satire in his work, which can safely be called a hit. Snezhana Petrova tells what is depicted on the canvas besides the biblical legend.

Plot

The Tower of Babel is one of the most popular biblical images in art. It is exploited in all sorts of ways: in cinema, theater, painting, literature. But Bruegl's painting is perhaps the most famous visual representation.
According to the biblical legend, the descendants of Noah - the same ones who survived the global flood - scattered throughout the land of Shinar. And at some point the idea came to them to build a tall tower: by joining forces, people wanted to ascend to heaven, that is, to the level of god. But it was not there. God clearly did not expect people to visit, so in order to prevent the construction of the tower, he sent a terrible punishment - a variety of languages. Suddenly people lost the ability to communicate. Not only did God create linguistic chaos, he also scattered people throughout the world. This is how the Bible explains the multiculturalism of our world.

"Tower of Babel". Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563 (click to enlarge image)

In the foreground we see King Nimrod, who, in fact, announced a tender for the construction of the tower. The money has been allocated - it needs to be inspected (there were no web cameras and all these technologies back then so that the customer could remotely monitor builders and contractors). And so Nimrod arrived at the construction site, ordinary people naturally fell on their faces.

Bruegel began painting biblical scenes after meeting Bosch

Nimrod was cruel and proud. It is no coincidence that the biblical character in Bruegel’s painting resembles a man from the 16th century. The painter alludes to Charles V, who was distinguished by his despotism.

Pay attention to how the craftsmen are compositionally positioned: in the foreground there is manual labor, then there is the use of long poles to move stone slabs, at the ground floor level there is the use of a block, then increasingly powerful cranes. According to one version, in this way Bruegel showed the development of construction technology.

The tower looks obscenely huge. And to better understand this, strain your eyes a little and look at the details that are written out very finely (by the way, each of the elements is shown in detail). The tower itself has already reached the clouds - and at any moment it will touch the god’s heel.

The structure looks like a jumble of levels and elements. Apparently, it was conceived as an object similar to the Colosseum, but with each new floor it is more difficult to trace the logic of the builders. According to Bruegel's idea, God's punishment overtook the masters: people stopped understanding each other and began to build, some in the forest, some for firewood. As a result, the material is placed unevenly, it is obvious that the seemingly strong tower is about to collapse and bury arrogant people under its rubble.

By the way, the image of the Colosseum was not used by chance. Initially, it was a symbol of the persecution of Christianity, because it was there that the first followers of Jesus were executed. Bruegel considered the Colosseum to be the Habsburg Empire, where Catholicism was imposed and Protestants, of whom the artist himself was a supporter, were brutally persecuted.

Bruegel's Tower of Babel is an allegory of the Habsburg Monarchy

This idea is reinforced by another image - the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome. A building similar to it is located inside the Tower of Babel. In the Middle Ages, the castle served as the residence of the popes and was perceived as a symbol of the power of the Catholic faith.

Ships entering the port are depicted with their sails removed - a symbol of hopelessness and disappointed hopes.

Context

Bruegel was very fond of the legend of the Tower of Babel. Two of his paintings on this topic have survived - a small one (kept in Rotterdam) and a large one (which is discussed in this text, stored in Vienna). There was also a miniature on ivory, but it has not survived.

"The Tower of Babel", Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Small option

Until the 16th century, the theme of the Tower of Babel attracted almost no attention from European artists. However, after 1500 the situation changed. The Dutch masters were especially fascinated by this subject. One possible reason is Holland's economic boom and urbanization. For example, Antwerp (which is depicted in Bruegel's painting) was overrun by foreigners. In fact, the city was the same multilingual Tower of Babel. People were no longer united by one church: Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans and Anabaptists lived mixed together. A feeling of fuss, insecurity and anxiety gripped the unfortunate residents of the Netherlands. How can one not remember the biblical story?

In the image of Nimrod, Bruegel encrypted Charles V

Bruegel was not so simple. In the image of the Tower of Babel, he encrypted his idea of ​​the fate of the Habsburgs. Under Charles V, the Habsburg Empire included the lands of Austria, Bohemia (Czech Republic), Hungary, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. However, in 1556, Charles abdicated the crown, and this huge state began to disintegrate under its own weight.

The fate of the artist

Information about the life of the artist, who, by the way, is considered the last star of the fading Renaissance in the Netherlands, is quite scarce. In his mature youth, he was literally dumbfounded by Bosch. After becoming acquainted with his work, Bruegel began to write on biblical subjects, and chose themes that his contemporaries largely ignored.

Portrait of Bruegel by Dominic Lampsonius, 1572

Bruegel was obviously a politically charged artist. In his paintings he tried to express criticism of both the authorities and the church. At the same time, he refused to paint portraits or nudes, despite tempting orders. Its main characters were faceless inhabitants of the Dutch provinces. At that time it was a challenge to trends.

The last years of Bruegel's life passed in an atmosphere of religious terror

Pieter Bruegel was about forty when the army of the Spanish Duke of Alba, with orders to destroy heretics in the Netherlands, entered Brussels, where the artist lived. The last years of the artist’s life passed in an atmosphere of religious terror and in the colors of blood.