Artists and Discussion

Art discussion | Noah on coins | Art collections | Artists

Art discussion

Two chapters from Brown University prof. George P. Landow's ebook Images of Crisis,

1. The Deluge transformed: The Christrian Tradition, Biblical Interpretation, and Literature on typological readings of the Noah story.
2. The Deluge transformed: Romanticism and the Massacre of the Innocents on Victorian artists' reframing of the story to stress the slaughter of innocents, a "new, particularly bitter meaning." His description of Dore's print The World Destroyed by Water deserves quoting, particularly as there isn't a good web image online:

   "In The World Destroyed by Water, we come upon many examples of panic as the seventy or so figures desperately attempt to escape the rising waters, but again there is none of the viciousness and cruelty one expects in scenes of panic. Indeed, a sense of community and humanity characterizes the acts of these people. In the foreground, for instance, a father heroically tries to hold wife and child above the waters, while above him two parents strain to push their infants to higher points of safety. … Similarly, in the pyramid of men and animals on higher ground which dominates the major portion of the illustration, love, fellowship, and community prevail: innocent children are pushed to the heights, and supposedly guilty human beings sacrifice themselves to save innocents.

   I am particularly struck by how in Dore's second picture (The Deluge) not only are human parents desperately trying to save their infants, but even the tiger is protecting her cubs between her paws and in her mouth.

The Moral Message in The Eve of the Deluge by Madeleine Marecki, Brown University student, on William Bell Scott's 1865 painting, with questions and some answers (from the Victorian Web). More could be rung out of it, nor is the description entirely correct.[1]

Noah on coins

Noah and the Ark on Ancient Coins by Marvin Tameanko, on depictions of Noah and his wife on the coins of Phrygian Apamea. The essay appears on the website of the American Israel Numismatic Association.

Jewish Encyclopedia: Apamea (number 2 is the one with the interest in Noah), entry by Samuel Krauss from the 1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia.

Art collections

More than a dozen Noah's ark artworks for sale from Christ-Centered Art.

National Library of the Netherlands has 29 images from the 13–15 century.

British Museum: The Noah Cameo (c. AD 1204-1250), from Sicily or Southern Italy.

AllPosters.com has quite a few Noah's Ark posters.

Edward Hicks posters from AllPosters.

Dore's Bible illustrations on a creationist site.

Artists

The Brick Testament (retelling the Bible in Legos) by The "Rev." Brendan Powell Smith. Noah's Ark begins here . Check out the sheep in this one, more subtle than, say, "Reuben went and slept with Bilhah his father's concubine." Smith has a very funny blog.