132 - Cornelis SAFTLEVEN (Gorkum, 1607 – Rotterdam, 1681) Noah’s Ark Oak panel, three boards, unparqueted Height: 73.2 cm Width: 106.5 cm Signed lower left.

Cornelis SAFTLEVEN (Gorkum, 1607 – Rotterdam, 1681) Noah’s Ark Oak panel, three boards, unparqueted Height: 73.2 cm Width: 106.5 cm Signed lower left. Trained in Amsterdam by his father, the landscape painter Herman I, Cornelis Saftleven likely visited Antwerp around 1632. He painted landscapes to which Rubens (who owned eight paintings by Saftleven) added figures. In Antwerp, he became familiar with the works of Brouwer and Teniers. He was in Utrecht with his brother Herman two years later, then returned to Rotterdam in 1637. He was appointed dean of the Guild of Saint Luke in that city in 1667. This composition depicts the biblical episode of the animals entering the ark. A crowd of animals—horses, cattle, goats, dogs, cats, monkeys, birds, and other species—gathers in the foreground and makes its way into the ark via a footbridge. Noah appears near the entrance, welcoming the animals. The profusion of species is one of the main attractions of the scene and attests to Saftleven’s remarkable attention to the observation and depiction of the animal world. The treatment of light and the sky lends the biblical episode a theatrical dimension: the landscape seems to foreshadow the impending flood while the imposing ark dominates the composition. In Saftleven’s work, the religious subject thus also becomes an opportunity to showcase a veritable “animal encyclopedia,” featuring a wide variety of postures, textures, and characteristics. Another version of Noah’s Ark by Saftleven went on sale in Paris, (Millon et associés) on June 24, 2005, lot 14 (42.5 x 53, signed and dated 1660; W. Schutz, *Cornelis Saftleven*; New York 1978, no. 536).