The Animals foregathering to enter the Ark
after Jan Brueghel the Elder (Brussels 1568 - Antwerp 1625)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1600 - 1699
Materials
Oil on copper
Measurements
374 x 502 mm (15 x 12 in)
Place of origin
Flanders (Belgium from 1830)
Order this imageCollection
Arlington Court, Devon
NT 987414
Caption
Noah, his wife and a daughter-in law rest with their donkeys whilst a vast array of pairs of all species of wild animals and exotic birds gather on the bank of a river. The ark, which they are about to enter, can just be seen in the distance. A church, an anachronistic element, is also visible, referring to many years later in the future when the descendants of Noah have established Christianity. In 1609 Jan Brueghel the elder was appointed court painter to Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabella in Brussels. They collected a menagerie of living animals from across the world from which the artist was able to make studies. This small, detailed composition, painted on copper, is an example of a popular and much repeated copy of an original painting from the 17th century.
Summary
Oil painting on copper, The Animals foregathering to enter the Ark, after Jan Brueghel the elder (Brussels 1568 - Antwerp 1625). A collection of pairs of wild animals gather on the bank of a river at the far left of a pastoral scene where swans and other waterfowl are swimming. A number of exotic birds sit in the bare branches of a small tree which grows beside the river and four more birds are flying towards the tree from the right. Lions frolic beneath the tree and a white horse stands in the centre foreground. Deer, ostrich and elephants can be seen at the far right. A turbaned figure in red drives some camels with a stick towards a large tree on the right. A group of three figures, Noah, his wife and a daughter-in-law, rest with their donkeys in the centre middleground. Mountains rise up in the distance and a tiny ark is discernible; a castle/church is visible in the background at the far right. The sky is blue with amber tones behind the cloud. The painting is a copy of the original, signed and dated, 1613 at J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles and a repetition version is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.
Provenance
Bequeathed to the National Trust with Arlington Court by Miss Rosalie Chichester (1865 – 1949)
Credit line
Arlington Court, The Chichester Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
after Jan Brueghel the Elder (Brussels 1568 - Antwerp 1625), artist
References
Ertz 1979 K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1658 - 1635): Die Gemälde mit kritischen Oeuvrekatalog, Cologne, 1979, pp. 236-49, no. 274 Kolb 2005 Arianne Faber Kolb, Jan Brueghel the Elder: The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark, Los Angeles 2005