The World Destroyed by Water
Gustave Doré, 1866 · Genesis 7:24
The passage
And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
Genesis 7:24
About this plate
The last rock. People are piled on it on the left, dozens of them, climbing over one another, and mixed in among them are a horse, a bear and snakes. On the right a woman has got herself above the water and is holding a child up over her head.
Doré fills every inch. There is no clear ground anywhere and no sky worth the name, only dark cloud pressed down on the water. Look along the horizon on the right and you will find the ark, a small flat shape, a long way off.
The verse is one line of arithmetic. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days. No people in it, no drowning, no noise. Five months, counted and set down.
The woman with the child is what stays with you. She is still lifting, and there is nothing above her to lift the child to.
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