The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark

1613

Medium

Oil on panel

Dimensions

54.6 × 83.8 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-137267

A profusion of animals fills the earth and sky. Fighting, playing, climbing, flying, and swimming, they are shepherded by Noah toward the ark in the far distance. All species of animals are portrayed, from large lumbering elephants to tiny turtles and hamsters in the foreground. Bats and birds soar across the sky, receding into the background where brighter skies hold promise of a future. The story of Noah's ark provided a subject well suited to Jan Brueghel the Elder's descriptive abilities. Overcome by the wickedness of the human race, God resolved to cleanse the earth with a great flood. He spared only the lives of the family of Noah, the sole just man. God instructed Noah to build an ark and to take on board a male and a female of every species of bird and beast. *The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark* was painted by Brueghel during his appointment as court painter to Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabella, rulers of the Southern Netherlands (a region in western Europe that corresponds to Belgium today). The exploration of the Americas in the 1500s spurred an increased curiosity about the natural world. By the time Brueghel was painting, turkeys (from North America) and…