La entrada de los animales en el arca de Noé

In 1609 Jan Brueghel became court painter to Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabella, the Habsburg rulers in Brussels. They kept a menagerie there, stocked with animals shipped in from across the world, and Brueghel was allowed to draw them from life. That is why the ostriches, camels, leopards and lions filing towards the ark in this panel are so particular. Most painters of the day worked their exotic beasts up from prints and travellers' talk. He dated this one 1613, and it is the earliest secure version of a subject he and his workshop would repeat many times afterwards. Off to one side, ordinary villagers have come out to stand and watch the procession go past.