Needlework Picture, Noah's Ark, by Unknown Maker

Dateca. 1690

MediumSilk embroidery on a linen ground of 33 x 33 threads per inch (fiber identification by Textile Lab.) in a gilt wooden frame with wooden backboard and under glass

DimensionsActual: OH 11" x OW 14 1/2" Framed: OH 13 5/8" x OW 17 1/8"

Credit LineAnonymous gift.

Object number1971-1715

DescriptionThis is a rectangular section of a tent stitch picture depicting the story of Noah's Ark. It is worked in shades of blue, green, gold, red, brown, blue-green, and beige silk embroidery threads on a linen ground. All four edges of the ground fabric are cut. The narrative begins at bottom right where a man and two other people guide pairs of animals onto the ark; a castle sits in the background. At top left are two people climbing oak trees to avoid the flood waters; they are observed by a third person. In the center, the ark sits on top of the water. At top right, the ark sits on dry land underneath a sun and a rainbow. At bottom left, a group of four people kneel in prayer in front of a ram who sits on a plinth surrounded by flames. All areas are filled with miscellaneous birds, insects, animals and flowers.
The picture is framed in a gilt frame with a wooden backboard.
Stitches: tent
Label TextAfter the Reformation, responsibility for religious instruction and observances shifted away from the priest and towards the family and the household. Embroidery was one way that women were able to express their piety outside of church. This embroidered picture tells the Old Testament account of Noah and the ark, as found in Genesis, chapters six through eight. The story appears in cartoon form in a crowded design typical of the seventeenth century. Beginning at the lower left, Noah's family is entering the ark with the animals. The scene proceeds clockwise toward the corner where people are climbing trees to evade the floodwaters. In the upper right corner, the rainbow promises the end of the flood, and in the lower right Noah and his family burn a ram as an offering of thanks.
ProvenancePurchased by donors from Ginsburg and Levy, Inc. in 1954.
Ex coll: Tomlinson.