Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Tower of Babel, 1563

Bruegel's tower goes up in tiers of arches like a Roman amphitheatre that never stopped, and the top of it is already in cloud while the bottom is still being built. You can see the scaffolding and the cranes and hundreds of tiny workers on the ramps, and the whole thing leans very slightly, which is rather the point of the story.

Two thousand pieces of ochre stonework with the same arch repeating all the way up. Finished size 98 x 69cm.