JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post  

This image of the construction of the Tower of Babel is interesting in a number of ways. For example, the general overt busyness of the construction sight is bright and refreshing, and the designer/architect seems enormous, and holds a compass skyward as the foreman (hat in hand) approaches with some skyward concerns of his own.  The skinny wheelbarrow at right is quite fine, as are the Renaissance cranes and scaffolding.   And as new as this building is, it seems to have some age built into it, what with the small trees and shrubs growing from it at different levels, a kind of Tuscan deteriorated elegance as the building is being built. This was not an uncommon motif seen in the engravings and woodcuts and paintings recording architecture during this period, but it is unusual to see it in a building under construction. 

The print is identified as Anonymous, and a source says that it was printed around 1500, but it looks slightly newer than that to me, maybe more mid-century.