Noah's Flood

Late 6th or early 7th century
Manuscript illumination
Origin disputed, could be Spanish or Italian
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS nouv. acq. lat. 2334

The stretched-out bodies of men and beasts who died in the flood float in the waters beneath an emphatically snug ark. The the artist has imagined Noah's vessel as a chest because in the Vulgate it is called an arca, the usual word for a chest.

For the baptismal significance of images like this, see the page on the right apse of St. John's, Taufers.

Read more about images of Noah.

• Home Page
• Iconography of Noah
• This Page

Sources:
This page at Wikimedia Commons for the image
This page at Wikipedia for the data.
Further information on the manuscript is at HistoryofInformation.com