# The Tower of Babel

- By: anonymous
- Date: c. 1490
- Medium: panel, oil paint (paint)
- Classification: painting
- Dimensions: support: height 20.5 cm x width 17.9 cm
- Museum: [Rijksmuseum](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/SK-A-2851--9c8c30e82ba28f61258d561da0c00199)
- Rights: [Public Domain Mark](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/1017c36d1a52287947423b5d339fd890.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

The Old Testament tells the story of the people of Babel who wanted to build a tower that would reach to heaven. God punished them for their pride: he confused their common language so they could no longer understand one another. This is one of the earliest painted depictions of this story; it also affords a fairly reliable glimpse of late medieval building practices.