The Building of the Tower of Babel

This tapestry, depicting the biblical construction of the Tower of Babel, is severely damaged and has been supplemented with canvas. In both the foreground and the background of the fragment, work on the building of the tower is in progress. On the right, the bearded man wearing a turban is Nimrod, the overseer of the construction. On the left, a man about to strike with a stick urges on two burden-bearers. At the centre of the fragment stands a figure seen from the back, loading bricks. Judging by the monumentality of the figures, the tapestry must originally have been much larger, both in height and width. On the left, traces of the border can still be discerned; on the right, however, the abruptly cut-off male hand suggests that the scene originally continued beyond the surviving fragment. The missing areas of the tapestry have been completed with painted reconstruction.

Provenance

Ipolyi Arnold gyűjteménye (?)

Bibliography

• Magyarország műemléki topográfiája I. Esztergom 1. Esztergom műemlékei (összeállította: Genthon István; Budapest 1948), 192. old., 207. kép László Emőke: Flamand és francia kárpitok Magyarországon. Corvina. Budapest, 1980, 44, 77, 32. kép, 34. kép
• Dutka Mária: Az esztergomi Keresztény Múzeum gobelinjei. Budapest, 1936., 50-56, 9.kép.