PIETER BRUEGEL'S TOWER OF BABEL: The Builder with the Red Hat

by Nils Jockel ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1998

That paintings provide windows into an artist's emotional and historical worlds becomes clear in this thoughtful entry in the Adventures in Art series, focused on Pieter Bruegel's Tower of Babel. Readers gain a tour of Antwerp in the 1560s (as depicted in the painting); in the voice of a little builder wearing a red cap (who is present in the lower left comer of the painting), Jockel explains the significance of some of the details. He points out the jugs and baskets that were the era's lunch boxes, explains the building procedures shown (the cutting of huge blocks of stone, the mixing of the mortar, the operation of a wooden crane). The story of the Tower of Babel is recounted; readers are invited to compare this version of Bruegel's vision with another he did on the same subject, as well as with those of other artists who came before and after him. The clear reproductions include the welcome enlargements of many details. Such concentrated attention on one work is rare even in art books for adults; libraries will want to snap up this lucid interrogation of Bruegel's masterpiece.

Pub Date: July 1, 1998

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 29

Publisher: Prestel--dist. by te Neues

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1998

Categories: CHILDREN'S