Marten's subject matter was principally landscapes populated with religious or allegorical themes or depicting agricultural or mining scenes. He also produced some portraits and also collaborated as a staffage painter with the still life painter
Georg Flegel. His work has been overshadowed by that of his brother Lucas the Elder, who achieved prominence as the court painter of
Archduke Matthias of Austria, during the Archduke's term as governor of the Spanish Netherlands and afterwards. He painted, like his brother Lucas, a number of mining scenes, which were probably based on his drawings of scenes along the Meuse river valley around present-day
Huy in Belgium. There he had likely witnessed and sketched mining activities related to the iron industry. Some of his paintings of mining scenes such as
River valley with iron mining scenes provide detailed depictions of the mining and smelting process of the late 16th and early 17th century. Marten van Valckenborch regularly returned to the subject of the
Tower of Babel, which was also depicted by
Pieter Bruegel the Elder and later by a whole range of Flemish artists. The subject of the Tower of Babel is usually interpreted as a critique of human
hubris, and in particular of the Roman Catholic Church which at the time was undertaking at great expense large-scale construction projects such as the
St. Peter's Basilica. However, it has also been viewed as a celebration of technical progress, which would herald a better and more organized world. ==References==