Source Analysis

Source Analysis

1. Part of what I like about Flemish Rennaisance painting is that often the artists see the biblical scene in terms of their own every-day life.  There are advantages to imagining a scene as it might have occurred at the time described; there are other advantages to translating that ancient story into contemporary terms.   In this painting, the tower is built next to a Dutch harbor in classic design.  You see that it has superceded the clouds, thus graphically demonstrating in ancient understanding, the reason that God should fear humankind’s intrusion into God’s doman, presenting a threat to ”the gods’ power as described in Genesis 11:1-9.   “Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

(http://bibleartists.wordpress.com/tag/little-tower-of-babel/)

2. Bruegel's depiction of the architecture of the tower, with its numerous arches and other examples of Roman engineering, is deliberately reminiscent of the Roman Colosseum,^[3] which Christians of the time saw as both a symbol of hubris and persecution. Bruegel had visited Rome in 1552-1553. Back in Antwerp, he must have refreshed his memory of Rome with a series of engravings of the principal landmarks of the city made by the publisher of his own prints, Hieronymous Cock, for he incorporated details of Cock's Roman engravings in both surviving versions of the Tower of Babel with few significant alterations.^{compare 2nd image below} The parallel of Rome and Babylon had a particular significance for Bruegel's contemporaries: Rome was the Eternal City, intended by the Caesars to last for ever, and its decay and ruin were taken to symbolize the vanity and transience of earthly efforts.^[2] The Tower was also symbolic of the turmoil between the Catholic church (which at the time did services only in Latin) and the polyglot Lutheran Protestant religion of the Netherlands.^[4] Although at first glance the tower appears to be a stable series of concentric pillars, upon closer examination it is apparent that none of the layers lie at a true horizontal. Rather the tower is built as an ascending spiral.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tower_of_Babel_(Bruegel)

3. These were followed
by two masterpieces of 1563, the Flight into Egypt (U. London,
Courtauld Inst. Gals), which is a landscape like the Suicide of Saul,
and the Tower of Babel (Vienna, Ksthist. Mus.), the undated variant
of which (Rotterdam, Mus. Boymans–van Beuningen) is usually
thought to have been painted c. 1567–8. The theme of the Tower of
Babel does not occur on panel before Bruegel, except for a lost work
by Patinir that is said to have been in Cardinal Grimani’s palace in
Venice. Bruegel’s eerie architectural Utopia is modelled on the ruins of the Colosseum in Rome,
which he must have studied while in Italy. He conceived the vision of a Roman monstrosity, thePieter Bruegel I: Road to
Calvary, oil on panel, 1.23×1.7…
Pieter Bruegel I: Hunters in the
Snow, oil on panel,…
Pieter Bruegel I: Return of the
Herd, oil on panel,…
fearful scale of which far exceeded all architectural megalomanias of the past. The Tower of
Babylon, described in the Bible and by Josephus Flavius, symbolizes the fact that all the works of
mankind are doomed to imperfection. According to Demus, the tower could not be completed
because the hubristic design of its builders had reached the limits of possibility. Bruegel’s intent is
to make evident this frustration: the scene typifies ‘a glaring want of coordination’, ‘a muddled
conception doomed from the outset’, ‘an absurd state of helplessness before the grandiose
mockery of a nightmarish bankruptcy of reason’.

http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/~bevans/pieter%20brugel%20grove%20bio.pdf

Notable Individual Reflection

Pieter Bruegel
     Pieter Bruegel was an interesting artist to study and i am glad i chose him. Most people just went for Leonardo Da Vinci or any other common names but when i saw Pieter Bruegel at the bottom of the list, i thought who's that? And so i picked up a book about him in the library and i liked his works. Pieter Bruegel is a unique artist. One thing i really admire about him was of how he never got the recognition he gets today. Even if he wasn't recognized his whole life as a great artist, he kept on working and pursuing art. For me, I thought that was one of the things that gave me so much respect for him.
     For his art, there was something special about it. Pieter Bruegel did not have the best life and that was something i liked as it showed onto his art. His art portrayed deep, meaningful topics. This was actually his strength, because if he were to have the best life his art would probably not have as much meaning put into them. One of the things i remember most about Bruegel were his grisailles. His grisaille's had so much meaning in them and it was fun to figure out what everything meant in the grisaille. Rather than just using elements of art, grisailles had dark toned colors so everything revolved around the symbols of the drawing. I also remember that I read about how Bruegel would draw sketches of peasants. I thought this was important because most people at his time would have probably not liked this. Bruegel had very personal works of art as i remember he kept one of his grisailles until he died.  Another thing that intrigued me about him was that there was little information known about him. This brings me back to my last point as I mentioned how he was barely recognized at the time. Because little was known about him, it makes me more interested as to what he could have gone though and gives off a mysterious kind of vibe. I like to explore so I'm really glad i chose Pieter Bruegel for my notable individual.

WORKS CITED

Bruegel, Pieter. The Little Tower of Babel. 1564. Panel. Museum Boymans-van 
     Beuningen, Rotterdam. 

Bruegel, Pieter. The Tower of Babel. 1563. Panel. Kunstbistorisches Museum, Vienna. 

"Little Tower of Babel." The Bible Through Artists' Eyes. wordpress, 22 Jan. 
     2011. Web. 15 Sept. 2012. <http://bibleartists.wordpress.com/tag/ 
     little-tower-of-babel/>. 

Sara's World History Blog. Blogger, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2012. 
     <http://sarasworldhistoryblog.blogspot.kr/>. 

Stechow, Wolfgang. Pieter Bruegel the Elder. New York: Abrams, 1990. Print. 

"The Tower of Babel (Bruegel)." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 10 Sept. 2012. Web. 15 
     Sept. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
     The_Tower_of_Babel_(Bruegel)>. 

Wied, Alexander. "Bruegel: (1) Pieter Bruegel I." Oxford Art Online. Oxford UP, 
     n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. <http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/~bevans/ 
     pieter%20brugel%20grove%20bio.pdf>. 

The Tower of Babel

      My primary source for my notable individual is a painting called "the Tower of Babel" by Pieter Bruegel. The reason why i chose this painting by Bruegel is because i thought landscape paintings were one of his strongest points and this painting also includes architecture. Bruegel did have many deep, meaningful grisailles but i wanted to do something more fun and colorful.
      The Tower of Babel consists of three different paintings but all of the tower. In the first picture on the right, you see "The Tower of Babel" this was Bruegel's first painting of the three. The Tower of Babel was said by the Bible (Book of Genesis) to be a tower built to unify people. "Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.'" (Genesis 11:4)

The Little Tower of Babel

This shows its value to the religious aspect of the painting. Also, if you look closely on the bottom left-hand corner you will notice something going on. I do not know for sure but it looks to me as if peasants are bowing down to wealthy patrons. This is a very renaissance element shown in the painting.
      Bruegel also did two other paintings of the Tower of Babel. However the one shown on the right was named as "The Little Tower of Babel". The Little Tower of Bruegel shows the tower except more developed. It also has different landscape pictures and does not include people. The Tower of Babel's architecture has many roman based elements. (columns, arches, etc.)

Why i like history?

   

  Welcome! :D

        I like history because it's fun to know the origins to everything! I find it very interesting of how things came to be. Its so weird but interesting to look back at history and wonder how it came to be our world today. Everything in history is so important, the people, timing, place, power, etc. Seeing how all those elements meshed together is what really fascinates me. One of my favorite things about history is the folklore of different cultures. For an example, my favorite is the Greek gods. Learning about the stories they created are just really fun to know about. History is also very important because it’s the inspiration for countless creations today. So many successful tv shows, movies, and books all come from inspirations from the past! Sometimes I wish I were able to time travel, to see how my life could turn out in certain time periods & experience all the different cultures that cannot be reached anymore. I wish to keep expanding my knowledge about history & learn a lot! :)