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I
was
introduced
to the work of
David Jones
by
The
Visual
Commentary
on Scripture
One of his woodcuts
appeared in their annual
Advent Calendar
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This is
The Bride
a wood engraving
on paper that he
printed in
1931
:
David Jones (1931) The Bride
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You can see
the rest of the
Advent Calendar
and many more
interesting
things at
VCS
:
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Wanting
to learn more
about David Jones,
I put on my sluething hat
and dove into the internet
…
I
was
thrilled
to discover a
ten-part series on
the story of Noah
that he created
in the year
1927
.
Scripture
will provide the
setting before
each image
.
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The
story of
Noah’s Ark
and the flood
(or ‘The Deluge’)
is found in Genesis
Chapter 6
:
Now the earth was
corrupt in God’s sight
and was full of violence
.
God saw how corrupt
the earth had become, for
all the people on earth had
corrupted their ways.
Genesis 6:11-12
There’s a lot to see
in this woodcut
!
The Deluge
01
The World
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So God said to Noah,
“I am going to put an end
to all people, for the earth
is filled with violence
because of them
.
I am surely going
to destroy both
them and the
earth
.
So make yourself an ark
of cypress wood; make
rooms in it and coat it
with pitch inside
and out
.
Genesis 6:13-14
The Deluge
02
Noah Receives the Plans
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I am going to bring
floodwaters on the earth
to destroy all life under the
heavens, every creature that
has the breath of life in it
.
Everything on
earth will
perish
.
But I will establish
my covenant with you,
and you will enter the ark—
you and your sons and your
wife and your sons’ wives with
you. You are to bring into the
ark two of all living creatures,
male and female, to keep
them alive with you
.
Two of every kind of bird,
of every kind of animal and
of every kind of creature that
moves along the ground will
come to you to be kept alive
.
You are to
take every kind
of food that is to
be eaten and store
it away as food for
you and for them
.
Noah did
everything just as
God commanded him
.
Genesis 6:17-22
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The artist
named the next one
‘The Mockers and the
Building of the Ark‘
.
The
previous image
completes Genesis 6,
and chapter 7 starts with
‘Go into the ark’, so where
do the following two
woodcuts come
from
???
The Deluge
03
The Mockers and the Building of the Ark
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As a Catholic
boy in Sunday School,
I learned that the community
mocked Noah for building
a boat on dry land, but
I haven’t found any
mention of it
in the bible
.
I
learned
something
today
!!!
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This
theme is
continued in
the next image,
‘The Mock Continues‘
:
The Deluge
04
The Ark is Completed
No Rain – The Mock Continues
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The LORD
then said to Noah,
“Go into the ark, you and
your whole family, because
I have found you righteous
in this generation
.
Take with you seven pairs
of every kind of clean animal,
a male and its mate, and one
pair of every kind of unclean
animal, a male and its mate,
and also seven pairs of
every kind of bird,
male and female,
to keep their various
kinds alive throughout
the earth. Seven days
from now I will send
rain on the earth
for forty days
and forty
nights,
and I will wipe
from the face of
the earth every
living creature
I have made
.
And Noah did
all that the LORD
commanded him
.
Genesis 7:1-5
The Deluge
05
The Beasts after their Kind
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And Noah
and his sons and
his wife and his sons’
wives entered the ark
to escape the waters
of the flood
.
Pairs of clean
and unclean animals,
of birds and of all creatures
that move along the ground,
male and female, came to
Noah and entered the
ark, as God had
commanded
Noah
.
And after
the seven days
the floodwaters
came on the
earth
.
Genesis 7:7-10
The Deluge
06
The Entry into the Ark
…
and
rain fell
on the earth
forty days and
forty nights
.
Genesis 7:11-12
The Deluge
07
The Fountains of the Deep
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For
forty days
the flood kept
coming on the earth,
and
as the waters increased
they lifted the ark high
above the earth
.
The
waters rose
and increased greatly
on the earth, and the ark
floated on the surface
of the water
.
They rose greatly
on the earth, and all the
high mountains under the
entire heavens were
covered
.
The waters rose and
covered the mountains
to a depth of more
than fifteen
cubits
.
Every living thing that
moved on land perished
—
birds, livestock, wild animals,
all the creatures that swarm
over the earth, and
all mankind
.
Everything
on dry land that
had the breath of
life in its nostrils
died
.
Every living thing
on the face of the earth
was wiped out; people and
animals and the creatures that
move along the ground and
the birds were wiped
from the earth
.
Only
Noah was left,
and those with
him in the
ark
.
Genesis 7:17-23
The Deluge
08
The Great Rain
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Then he
sent out a dove
to see if the water
had receded from
the surface of
the ground
.
But the dove
could find nowhere
to perch because there was
water over all the surface of
the earth; so it returned
to Noah in the ark
.
He reached out
his hand and took the
dove and brought it back
to himself in the ark
.
He waited
seven more days
and again sent out
the dove from
the ark
.
When the dove
returned to him in
the evening, there in
its beak was a freshly
plucked olive leaf
!
Then
Noah knew
that the water had
receded from
the earth
.
Genesis 8:8-12
The Deluge
09
The Dove
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Then God
said to Noah,
“Come out of the ark,
you and your wife
and your sons
and their
wives”
.
Genesis 8:15-16
Then
God blessed
Noah and his sons,
saying to them
,
“Be fruitful
and increase in
number and fill
the earth”
.
Genesis 9:1
The Deluge
10
The Oblation of Noah
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Then God said
to Noah and to his
sons with him: “I now
establish my covenant
with you and with your
descendants after you
and with every living
creature that was
with you
—
the birds,
the livestock and
all the wild animals,
all those that came out
of the ark with you—every
living creature on earth
.
I
establish my
covenant with you:
Never again will all life
be destroyed by the waters
of a flood; never again
will there be a flood
to destroy the
earth”
.
Genesis 9:8-11
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All of the images
in The Deluge series
are woodcuts on paper,
144 x 166 mm
,
but
I trimmed
the borders so they
could be displayed here
as large as possible
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You can find
more of David Jones’
artwork here
:
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The icon
for this article
is a detail from
David Jones’
The Artist
:
David Jones (1927) The Artist
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