KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM, The Tower Of Babel By Bruegel

The "Tower of Babel" is a masterpiece of Flemish Renaissance painting, illustrating the famous biblical story according to which, after the Great Flood, humans repopulated the Earth, and all spoke the same language and lived in one region.

 At one point, as a gesture of self-celebration, they decided to build a tall tower that would reach right up to the sky. As an admonishment, God made them express themselves in different languages, so they could no longer understand each other. They thus abandoned the tower project, and broke up into groups that went to populate other areas of the world.

Bruegel's work is famous for its incredible attention to detail and clear depiction of human vanity.

The artist actually painted two known versions of this subject; the most famous, dating to 1563, is the one you can admire here....