Before the Deluge

Before the Deluge — depicting humanity in its state of sinful excess immediately before the Flood — gave Cornelis van Haarlem a subject he explored in multiple versions and related compositions across his career. The 1615 panel in the National Museum in Warsaw is a later version of the moral-theological subject he addressed in the Toulouse Augustins canvas of the same year, reflecting the continuing demand for this type of biblical-moral narrative among Dutch collectors. The subject belongs to a category of biblically authorised scenes of vice that permitted the depiction of sensual, violent, or otherwise transgressive human behaviour under the cover of religious condemnation — a double function that sophisticated patrons understood and valued. By 1615, the most extreme Mannerist elements had moderated in Cornelis's work, but the moral complexity and compositional ambition of his antediluvian subjects remained consistent vehicles for his skills.

Panel with Cornelis's late manner — somewhat more restrained figure treatment than his 1590s Mannerist period while maintaining the complex multi-figure composition structure. The warm palette of sensual excess scenes uses ochres, flesh tones, and the bright accents of clothing among the dissolute figures against a darkening or stormy sky.