The Earth under Water: Images of the Great Flood and Noah's Ark in Medieval and Early Modern Art - Prof. Dr. Bettina Uppenkamp, HFBK Hamburg - HFBK
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- re-story-ation: Artistic Research and More-Than-Human Relationalities
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07.05.2026
The Earth under Water: Images of the Great Flood and Noah's Ark in Medieval and Early Modern Art
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Bettina Uppenkamp, HFBK Hamburg, as part of the symposium re-story-ation: Artistic Research and More-Than-Human Relationalities on May 7, 2026 at HFBK Hamburg.
The Earth under Water: Images of the Great Flood and Noah's Ark in Medieval and Early Modern Art
Narratives of a life-destroying great flood belong to the mythological heritage of numerous cultures. This catastrophe is generally understood as a form of divine punishment for human guilt and sin. In the Old Testament, Noah, as the only righteous man, is instructed to build an ark and to save not only his family but also a pair of every kind of animal—both pure and unpure—"birds and livestock and every creeping thing" (Gen 8:17), in order to repopulate the earth after the flood. This lecture focuses on images from earlier periods of art history and, in particular, asks which species were deemed worthy of representation.