A long hall with a ribbed, curved roof and a dark doorway, drawn in a few broad strokes.
Bible in art · Genesis
Noah's Ark
Rembrandt · c. 1660
Art Institute of Chicago
Rembrandt brushed this drawing in Amsterdam around 1660, near the end of his life, with a pen and a brush loaded with brown wash. It was a study for himself, not a finished picture.
There is no flood yet and no storm. The ark is a long barn-like hall with a curved roof, and a few people with their animals walk up towards its door while others stand and watch.
From the text
- Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives going into the ark (Genesis 7:7)
- Animals coming to Noah to enter the ark (Genesis 7:8–9)
The artist’s own
- The ark as a great hall on land, reached by a ramp, rather than a ship
- Onlookers who stay outside — the text names no one watching
Details
The ark
At the top
A lone figure stands at the head of the ramp, by the entrance.
Going in
People with animals walk towards the ark; one bends down to a small animal.
Watching
Dark, quickly brushed figures stand in the foreground and look on.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606–1669. The Art Institute of Chicago (Clarence Buckingham Collection, 1953.36) · Pen and brown ink and brush and brown ink wash on cream laid paper · Art Institute of Chicago: "CC0 Public Domain Designation" (API record: "is_public_domain": true; https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).