The story of the Tower of Babel is recounted in the first book of the Old Testament, in Genesis. It is often used to explain the origin of the different languages in the world. The descendents of Noah decided to build a tower that would make them famous and that would reach up to heaven. God punished them for their pride and audaciousness by making them all speak different languages so that they could no longer communicate with one another and were thus unable to complete the tower.

The arms on this panel are those of Hans-Petter Lochmann and his wife Magdalena Wirrtin. The use of heraldic arms was more widespread among all classes in mainland Europe than it was in England. People would often commission a small glass panel painted with their arms to celebrate a special occasion such as a marriage, a birth or an event related to their profession. This practice increased dramatically after the Reformation, because religious institutions were not commissioning many large narrative windows for their buildings. Instead, stained-glass craftsmen started to supply works for the growing secular market. Religious imagery continued, but it was now mostly for personal use in the home or in the guildhall.

In the middle of the 16th century new techniques for producing decorated glass were introduced. Glass paints known as ‘enamels’ were used to paint directly onto the glass, similar to painting onto a canvas. The colours were produced by adding metallic oxides to a glass frit mixture. The resulting colour range included delicate pinks, reds and purples. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Zurich was a centre of glass painting. It seems likely that this panel was made there because it was ordered by a Zurich man.