Cornelis Saftleven was a versatile Dutch painter from Rotterdam. At the start of his career he spent a few years in Flanders, in Antwerp, where he must have seen paintings representing the Ark of Noah, which was a popular, typically Flemish, Catholic subject.

 

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam holds preparatory drawings by Cornelis Saftleven for two of our animals.

 

 

Dutch painter

Gorinchem 1607 – 1681 Rotterdam

 

Versatile painter of genre scenes, landscapes, allegories, etc.

 

Cornelis was the grandson and son of two painters called Herman, by whom no paintings have been identified yet.

Cornelis had two younger brothers who were also painters:

- Herman was a famous landscape and barn interior painter, he is sometimes called Herman II or III,

- Abraham of whom very little is known.

 

All three boys grew up in Rotterdam where they have trained as painters with their father until his death in 1627.

 

Cornelis was active in Flanders, in Antwerp, between 1632 and 1634, where he came into contact with the work of Adriaen Brouwer and of David Teniers II. While in Antwerp he collaborated on four projects with Sir Peter Paul Rubens. He left Antwerp for Utrecht where he was active for a very short while with his brother Herman; they worked together on a portrait. Our painter returned to Rotterdam in 1637, where he started his own workshop. He seems to have stayed here until his death in 1681. In October 1667 he was elected dean of the local Painter’s Guild.

 

 

God, who was unhappy with man’s misbehaviour, was determined at first to destroy all humans and all life on earth. Finally God ordered Noah to build a huge vessel in which he would spare Noah, his family and a pair of each species of animals. A world-engulfing flood destroyed all other life on earth. After the deluge the world could be repopulated.

 

Saftleven has painted here a huge ship in which Noah’s family and pairs of animals are boarding before the devastating flood.

 

“Animals entering Noah’s Ark” is one of the so-called Paradisiacal subjects of 17th century painting: compositions holding a lot of animals.

 

The others are: 

- Adam and Eve in Paradise;

- Orpheus charming the animals;

- Milo of Crotona.

 

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam holds two preparatory drawings with animals that appear in our painting: the bear bottom left and the calf middle right.

 

 

Because this story taken from the Book Genesis formed a perfect excuse to paint lovely animals in beautiful poses.