Mitsuru Watanabe - Babel and Pudding

Object Description

Mitsuru Watanabe
(Born 1953)
Babel and Pudding
Oil on canvas
63.75 x 44 inches
Signed

Object History

The artist

NOTES
In Babel and Pudding, Watanabe places his daughter Naoko in front of a composite version of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Tower of Babel. Bruegel created two versions of the Tower of Babel painting in 1536, often referred to as the Great Tower and the Little Tower, in reference to the size of their respective panels. The tower in Watanabe’s painting comes from the Little Tower, which seems complete, especially in contrast to the Great Tower, which still has various unfinished sections towards the top. However, the king and his entourage on the left side of Naoko’s table come from the Great Tower’s foreground. Instead of a hill, the stonemasons pay homage to the king walking across a table draped in a brown cloth, where Naoko is getting ready to dig into some custard pudding. On the right-hand side of the table, opposite the royal retinue, we see the titular subject of Paolo Uccello’s Saint George and the Dragon. Saint George, an armored knight upon a white horse, drives his spear into the neck of the green beast, with both blood and fire spewing from its mouth.

Object Condition

Excellent

Object Details