BABEL: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Show A Smashing Success
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum will host the exhibition, “Collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Bruegel’s ‘The Tower of Babel’”. Featured in the exhibition besides Pieter Bruegel, as announced by its subtitle— “Great 16th Century Masters,” will be two oil paintings by Bruegel’s forerunner and artistic model, Hieronymus Bosch, along with numerous paintings, prints, and sculptures of the 16th-century Netherlands of their day, some 90 works in total.
We invite you to experience the wealth and wonder of 16th-century Dutch art through oil paintings rendered in glowing colors with remarkable realism, print works abounding with monstrous Bosch motifs, and superlative wood sculptures.
Furthermore, in addition to displaying the artworks for maximum beauty of effect and ease of viewing, the art museum—taking a totally new approach—will exhibit an enlarged reproduction of Bruegel’s painting The Tower of Babel made by Tokyo University of the Arts COI site at approximately 300% of its original size through integration of art and scientific technology. The COI site is also producing a 3D computer graphics of The Tower of Babel to provide still another avenue of approach to the wonder of this masterpiece.
First, the opportunity to view Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s astoundingly detailed and realistic painting, The Tower of Babel. One theory attests that 1,400 people are depicted at the picture’s bottom. Along with its minutiae, this 16th-century masterpiece overwhelms with its sense of volume and verisimilitude.
Next, two oil paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, the great master of fantasy, will come to Japan. This year, 2016, marks the 500th anniversary of Bosch’s death, and the artist is currently enjoying a popular revival in the West. This will be a rare opportunity to see two authentic works by Bosch, of which only about 25 are thought to exist in the world.
Also displayed are 16th-century copperplate prints showing the influence of Bosch, many of them produced after drawings by Bruegel. In some of them appear monsters having an uncanny ability to excite our imaginations—heads with legs and other fantastic creatures you will not want to miss.
Last but not least is a journey through the history of art and sculpture in the 16th-century Netherlands. During the 15th and 16th centuries, the center of art in the Netherlands moved northward from the south, and Dutch painters turned from age-old religious themes to landscapes and scenes of everyday life. The exhibition will offer a precious chance to trace these historical transitions through fine works of art.
For tickets, more information and to enjoy a great art experience for the whole family, please visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.
