The Bedford Hours: the Tower of Babel, from the Bed Master’s Studio
(circa 1423 – Pomegranite – 1000 pieces)
How long ago did I get this puzzle? I think I bought it “used” 🙂 It’s pretty worn out and there’s more pieces missing that usual for me. So I’m gonna guess I got it in the ’00’s at the Mt Carmel Shop on Lovell Ave in Mill Valley. Going to that store was a regular part of my post-coffee rotation. Gosh that was a nice life!
I love the early Middle Ages style of tapestry.
I have so many questions and thoughts:
I am going to cross-link this to the puzzle I’m doing now. It’s got it’s own take on protelariat style 600 years later!
- Why is a very stylish 21th-century orange such a popular color for homespun? It’s still that was centuries later in this puzzle linked above!
- Hoodies came before hats! :))
- This is kind of obvious I guess. But this scene reminds us that it was kind of a class thing back then. Even a peasant could design a cloak with an extra flap in the back to pull over your head. You had to be a little fancy to carry around an extra piece of clothing just to cover your head.
- Class-conscious clothing
- The worker dudes (and they are all dudes, nary a non-dude person anywhere to be found) all wear leggings and tie-up booties… They don’t call it “homespun” for nothing!
- …while the rich dudes have nice fitted shoes and cuffs on their pants and some pretty sweet needlework. I am speaking mostly of that crew in the lower left corner who are pretty clearly the Bishop and his traveling party.
- Only dress exception I see is the stonemason in the bottom middle (green shirt, orange headgear) He’s sporting those silver booties like he’s ready for the disco. Stonemasons had a marketable skill so they were further up the status scale.
- The camel getting loaded up is pretty cool.
Even though the scenery and people look European, it’s a reminder that we’re supposed to be in Iraq somewhere. - On the right middle there’s a couple of heads and an orange hat, but no clue what their message is … not true, on further review I think they are the Magi – I know I’m mixing Old and New Testaments, but … artistic license and all. 🙂
- I love that everybody needs a shave! Even the fancy Bishops or whatever they are in the left bottom are pretty ratty. 🙂
- So, from bottom to top, we have:
- the Bosses on the bottom left Church people and money people
- Skilled professionals on the bottom middle. The skill required to cut a block so that it fits perfectly after you carry it up four flights of stairs is quite remarkable!
- Less skilled professionals on either side of the lower part of the tower. Running the winch, mixing the cement, carrying it all from here to there.
- From the middle down there is a swarm of activity, but from the middle up activity on the sides fades to nothing to focus on the existential drama on the Tower.
- Up to 2/3 up the Tower it’s still pretty normal, carrying morter, organizing the block and tackle to get stones up to their lever …
- … but on the tier 4/5 up the picture (the top tier), the last visible tier, all heck is breaking loose!
- It’s gotten downright primitive at the top. The wages of hubris and all that! 🙂
- I’m gonna guess that the buildings on the left about 70% up are the “shining city on the hill”. That odd little figure on the middle tower who prefigures all the crazy s–t upstairs is staring at it (I think 🙂
Looking it up in the internet I am reminded that Pomegranate makes very high quality puzzles. I have a bunch of them in my stack of puzzles in my closet!
Also is appears that this puzzle is no longer in their active catalog!