The Tower of Babel

500 Springbok (40.6 x 57.8)
The Tower of Babel
Artist Unknown
Production Date 1968

I was lucky to find this old Springbok complete and in good condition. The colors in this puzzle are amazing and the fit and finish is incredible.

From the collector.com:

Folio 17v, The Bedford Hours (c. 1410-30)

The Bedford Hours, Folio 17v, depicting the construction of the Tower of Babel, c. 1410–30, The British Library, via Daily Art Magazine

Within the Roman Catholic faith, books of prayer for certain canonical times of day are known as books of hours. Manuscript examples from the Middle Ages are often lavishly illuminated, and few more so than The Bedford Hours, which boasts more than 1,200 historiated roundels.

The Bedford Hours was originally created to mark the wedding of Anne of Burgundy and John, Duke of Bedford (which, of course, is where the manuscript’s name is derived) on May 13th, 1423. On Christmas Eve 1430, however, Anne of Burgundy gifted the precious manuscript to the nine-year-old King Henry VI, her nephew.

Within a series of miniatures depicting scenes from the Book of Genesis, on Folio 17v of the Bedford Hours, the concurrent construction and divine demolition of the Tower of Babel is depicted in a full-page miniature. Laborers continue working on the construction of the tower, and Nimrod and his retinue come to survey their work (a scene taken from Flavius Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, perhaps, rather than the Book of Genesis, in which Nimrod is not mentioned). All the while, however, divine forces are working against them. Thus, the image underlines the warning against greed and megalomania, as stated in the Book of Genesis.