Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark (Brueghel) Metal Tree Decoration

This design features a painting by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625), who was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. It shows many different animals collected together in one place, before they are shepherded onto Noah's Ark, from the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, chapters 6–9. In the Biblical story, God spares Noah, his family and examples of all the world's animals from a flood that was going to engulf the entire Earth. This painting shows a wide range of animals: there are beautiful birds and bats in the sky and sitting on treetops, tiny turtles and hamsters in the foreground and large lions, leopards, camels and elephants in the centre. Turkeys and guinea pigs are depicted, but they had only recently been discovered in the Americas. This painting was commissioned by Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabella, rulers of the Southern Netherlands: they kept a menagerie of rare animals and birds, including parrots from Central and South America, at their palace in Brussels, allowing Brueghel to study the animals closely and paint them from sight. The original painting was produced in 1613.