God Creating the Animals 1585 - 1630

Antonio Tempesta created this print, God Creating the Animals, sometime in the late 16th or early 17th century. In this period, Europe was emerging from the religious conflicts of the Reformation, and the Catholic Church was trying to reassert its cultural authority. Tempesta was working in Italy, the heart of the Catholic world, and he pictures God in a way that reinforces traditional religious teachings. We see God as an old, bearded man hovering over the earth, surrounded by clouds and light. Below him, animals fill the landscape in an orderly fashion. It's a vision of divine power and control that would have appealed to the Church and its followers. But Tempesta was also an artist working in a commercial market. Prints like this were popular among collectors, and this one would have appealed to their sense of wonder about the natural world. As historians, we can look at prints such as this one to understand the complex interplay of religion, politics, and culture in early modern Europe. By studying the art and literature of the time, we can learn more about the people who created and consumed these images, and the world they inhabited.