MEMBERGER, Kaspar the Elder
(b. ca. 1555, Konstanz, d. 1618, Konstanz)

Noah's Ark Cycle: 3. The Flood

1588
Oil on canvas, 128 x 164 cm
Residenzgalerie, Salzburg

With loving attention to faithful detail, Memberger's Noah cycle of five paintings gives a lively rendering of the most important events in the biblical story (Gen 6—9): the building of the ark, the animals entering the ark, the flood, the animals leaving the ark and Noah's sacrifice of thanksgiving. All the paintings are dated and signed and bear the arms of both the Land Salzburg and of Wolf Dietrich. They are similar in their formal composition: against the partial view of a mountain landscape, the protagonists engage in their various activities in the foreground.