Gillis van Valckenborch was a Belgian painter who was born in 1570. Besides the Tower of Babel he produced some great work of art like `Volumnia before Coriolanus' and `A moonlit landscape with classical ruins and Penitent Magdalen'. Gillis van Val ckenborch came from a family of painters, father Marten Van Valckenborch, a brot her Frederik van Valckenborch and a nephew Lucas Van Valckenborch. He was a Flem ish Baroque painter, an art produced in southern Netherlands in 1585, he was als o known for his landscapes painting and proficiency at figures. The Tower of Babel was an enormous Tower, which was build in the plain of Shinar . Across the globe, the myth of the construction of the "Tower of Babel" has bee n depicted by various painters in their painting, but the best depiction was don e by Gillis van Valckenborch. Going back in time, when the whole Earth had one language and few words, and peo ple migrated from East, they found a plain land in Shinar and settled there. The people from East had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar and build themselv es a city and tower with its top in heaven. It is believed that the Lord came do wn to see the city and tower, by seeing the oneness among the people, Lord scatt ered them abroad from there over the face of the earth, and they left off buildi ng the city. And so it was named Babel , because there the Lord confused the la nguage of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the faceTower The of the ofearth. Babel by Gillis van Valckenborch is an elegant art work which refle cts both landscape painting and figure painting. It is an oil painting reproduct ion on canvas. The painting is made by the of wide variety of brown and red colo rs on a canvas of 3x4 feet(length x breadth). The painting is a motion painting which shows the construction of the Tower of Babel, It has the exterior scene of the construction of the Tower, the scene also includes the Bay area of Shinar. The painter would have selected this subject as it was the third of three monume ntal works of mankind in Genesis. The story of Babel is important because it te lls us about the origin of the different languages spokenoday and elucidates why humans are scattered all across the globe.Part of the reason that the people we re building the Tower is to ensure that they remain together and that their lega cy lives on. The story is one of the oldest in Bible and has been interpreted by many poeple. The painter has shown that he was proficient in figures as well. The painting looks very realistic as the figures and other small things are cle arly depicted and taken care. It reflects that people have been struggling hard during the construction and also the eager on their face is reflected. By lookin g at the painting we can notice, how the construction used to take place in old days and the various tools used in the late 16th century also the animals were u sed such as horses, camels and donkeys for transportation and carrying the goods . The painting shows how the workers were devoted to the work as they were worki ng hard to build one of the biggest monuments ever. From the painting Tower of Babel we not only see the impact on the dispersion of l anguages but also on the societal structure at that time.Up to that time the poe ple ofhaivng After the Tower a precise were attempting look at the topainting urbanizewe the can land seeof the Shinar. workers' talent in the construction as they were taking precise measurement of the stones that has to b e used in the construction. One of the interesting fact about the Tower of Babel i s that the people of Shinar was not like building a temple to honor God, but was to instead honor themselves and raise themselves upto the level of God by stand ing aboveat Although the first clouds. glance the Tower appears to be a stable series of concentric p illars, upon closer examination it is apparent that none of the layers lie in a horizontal line. Rather the Tower is built as an ascending spiral. The base has twelve doors and seventy-two pillars. The architect of the Tower of the Babel bu ilt the pathway in spiral shape which would be an easy way for the transportatio n of the building material to the top the less-inclined and the spiral pathway o f the Tower adds to its beauty. The spiral pathway to the Tower has many small houses in between and the pathways are quite broad. The painter draws our attention to show the elegance of the city of Shinar. Thepresence of boats and ships across the sea concludes that the city has a fairly good population and the city is either importing the building materials or expor ting their rich goods of supply. They were very concerned about finishing the To wer as they built their temporary houses near the Tower which would be easy for them in all ways. The construction site had multiple furnaces to build the Tower in a short period of time. By looking at the painting, we see that the utilizat ion of resources were at the best, the place to build the tower was nearby the s tream of water and also not far from the city. Which made the construction proce ss at more ease. I believe that the small towers along the spiral pathway was co nstructed to keep a guard on the Tower of Babel and the various room was for prope r ventilation. As the eye sweep across the painting, from left to right, we see dedication, syn chronization, eagerness, the social status of people, the skills, the technology . The painter has done a very good job in depicting the work done by the people of Shinar in building the third monumental works in Genesis, even though the Tow er inevitably remained unfinished. The focus and emphasis of the painting is usu ally on the representation of human capabilities in the olden days. As the Tower remains unfinished even after putting a lot of efforts in building, we can conc lude that people were arrogant and egotism . Only rarely can you find such a dra stic punishment of human arrogance. The painter is trying to convey the message ofchose I not cultivating this painting human thearrogance Tower of Babel as part byof Gillis humanVan characters. Valckenborch for the pape r as it shows the power of person's will and effort to achieve whatever he/she wan ts to achieve. Both the story of Babel and Gillis Van Valckenborch's painting have different focal points, but do not contradict each other. The painting describe s the man's ambitions and desires but the painting failed to describe the God's reac tion to man's behavior and his subsequent power, which was well described in the s tory. On contrast the painting also omits the humans' fear and only illustrates th e vain motivation of building the tower. It depicts the time when man lived to gether and spoke one language, when he was united in his goals and could gather the courage to reach the heavens. He was successful in building the Tower till a great height but its progress angered gods and they destroyed it. This should s et an example for the present times and how we should religiously follow it. Wit h the amount of violence in the world, the many wars going on, the widespread po verty in different parts of the world, people being denied the basic human right s with so many problems it would really help if people forgot about their differ ences and come together and trust each other again for the betterment and advanc ement of the mankind. The matter of different languages among different people c annot be resolved as we have come too far from the ancient times and now speak m any new Both thelanguages story of Babel which and are the different painting andTower uniqueof inBabel their show own way. man's desire for power and God's response to that aspect of human nature. Arrogance is common trait betwe en man in the biblical times and the man of today. People have inherited the nat ure of arrogance and egotism from the past and has adapted to live with it. Peop le have chosen to forget the meaning of unity and integrity among themselves. Pe ople end up desiring more than they even deserve. People never gets satisfied wi th what they have, their hunger for more has led them into troubles. This shows the affinity of mankind towards bad traits. If people start realizing the true essence of life then this Earth will be a better place for the entire human race . http://gnosticteachings.org/courses/kabbalah-of-genesis/647-the-Tower-of-Babel-1 Bibliography Is there archaeological evidence of the Tower of Babel? (n.d.). Retrieved Septem .html ber 15, 2012, from http://www.christiananswers.net: http://www.christiananswers. TURK, K. (n.d.). Man at Work. net/q-abr/abr-a021.html