The Tower of Babel, 1563 by Pieter Bruegel Postcard

Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Tower of Babel, 1563. Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder (1525-1569) was among the most significant artists of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes; he was a pioneer in presenting both types of subject as large paintings. The Tower of Babel narrative in Genesis 11:1–9 is an origin myth meant to explain why the world's peoples speak different languages. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language and migrating eastward, comes to the land of Shinar. There they agree to build a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Yahweh, observing their city and tower, confounds their speech so that they can no longer understand each other, and scatters them around the world.