# The Tower of Babel \(detail\) [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [BRUEGEL, Pieter the Elder]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Oil on oak panel ## Commentary Foreign merchants, new religious groupings, and the city's rapid growth led to problems of orientation and communication in Antwerp. An allegory for this situation was seen in the biblical account of the Tower of Babel: in- tended to reach up to heaven, it displeased God, who stripped humankind of their common language, thereby preventing the completion of the tower's construction. ## Related artworks - [Adoration of the Kings in the Snow \(detail\)]() - [Adoration of the Kings in the Snow]() - [Big Fishes Eat Little Fishes]() - [Big Fishes Eat Little Fishes]() - [Children's Games \(detail\)]() - [Children's Games \(detail\)]() - [Children's Games \(detail\)]() - [Children's Games \(detail\)]() - [Children's Games \(detail\)]() - [Children's Games \(detail\)]() - [Children's Games \(detail\)]() - [Children's Games \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()