Afternoon Tea at Towneley
Wednesday Jan. 16th 2008
Our first event of the new year was a closer look at the Tower of Babel Painting and a brief overview of family busts and portraits of the Towneley Family and we must thank Susan Bourne (Curator) and Tony Kitto (Archivist) for imparting their knowledge at this most interesting meeting.
The Tower of Babel Painting, a 16th Century Flemish masterpiece by Marten Van Valkenborch was bought for the Towneley Hall Art Collection in 1950 with the aid of the Edward Stocks Massey Bequest.
We were able to view the painting both ‘in the flesh’ but also in close-up detail courtesy of magnificent digital photography which enabled one to see and appreciate the detail much clearer than with the naked eye.
The lecture also covered other Tower of Babel works of art and the history of the subject from the Middle Ages to the 16th Century when our Tower of Babel was painted. The Tower of Babel seems to have been a subject which inspired, not only many painters, but also for the artists to paint many differing paintings of the subject. There are at least six paintings of the Tower of Babel attributed to Marten Van Valkenborch but the one at Towneley is perhaps the finest of these.
