HENDRICK VAN CLEVE III (ANTWERP 1525-1590)

The story of the tower of Babel, taken from Genesis (XI:1-9), provided a rich source of subject matter for several late sixteenth and early seventeenth century Flemish painters, following in the long-standing tradition of portrayals of the subject in fifteenth and sixteenth century prints and illuminated manuscripts. The subject recounts how the people of Babel decided to build 'a city and a tower, with its top in the heavens', appointing Nimrod, 'the mighty warrior before the Lord', to oversee its construction. Until the late fifteenth century, the Tower was traditionally depicted as a relatively low building, almost always square in construction. Hendrick van Cleve III, along with the Brueghels and Lucas van Valckenborch, was among the first to depict round Towers, sometimes spiralled (as in the present work), the foreground crowded with numerous small figures and animals.