The Ark

Art Historical Context

**The Ark**, painted around 1700 by Lodewijk Tieling, an active in the late 1690s, captures a whimsical vision of the biblical Noah's Ark story in oil on canvas. Measuring an impressive 46¼ x 61¼ inches, this large-scale work teems with life: pairs of men and women guide an extraordinary menagerie including swans, ducks, unicorns, peacocks camels, cats, cows, dogs, goats,, monkeys, and lions toward the massive wooden vessel. The fantastical inclusion of unicorns blends scriptural narrative with folkloric imagination, characteristic of early colonial artistry. Created during America's colonial...