Judith Roth, Noah’s Ark, 1956. Fresco. South Solon Meeting House (photo: David Franzen).
In 1956, Judith Roth (then Shuman), while currently enrolled at the Skowhegan School, was invited to decorate a panel on the north side of the South Solon Meeting House’s gallery. She chose to depict Noah’s Ark (Genesis 7:18-21). The story of a flood recurs throughout the ancient world, not only in Judeo-Christianity, but also in other cultures such as ancient Greece and Mesopotamia. In the biblical story, God becomes enraged with humankind and vows to destroy all living creatures on earth but spare Noah, his family, and pairs of animals. A storm follows, raging for forty days and forty nights and destroying all breathing creatures that did not receive shelter in Noah’s ark. Eventually, after forty days and nights, Noah sends a dove to check for dry land and it returns with an olive branch in its beak, indicating that the flood was subsiding. Roth explained the moment she chose to depict: “[a]s the vessel appears on the crest of a wave, a white dove is seen hovering in the foreground overhead, with the olive branch in her bill, signaling the sight of land.” She aimed at connecting her fresco with others nearby: “[t]he arc of the bird’s wing recalls the shape of Abraham’s scythe in Al Blaustein’s adjoining fresco” while “the motion of the water [sweeps] into the design of the [angels in] Wallace’s area” (Cummings 51).
Roth offers a highly personal interpretation of the story of Noah’s Ark. Her powerful brushwork conveys the violence of the storm and of the waves. We see the dove with the olive branch gracefully gliding back to the ark, communicating that the world is peaceful, safe, and full of God’s love once again but despite this message of hope and faith, the composition and positioning of the ark suggest that the vessel is about to capsize and be swallowed up by the seas. It is noteworthy that the dove, a symbol of purity and peace (Ferguson 15) appears the closest to the viewer, while the ark is in the distance and half hidden by the large waves.
Noah built the ark on God’s command to save his family from the impending deluge, for Noah, who was righteous and had “found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8), was seen as the future hope of humankind. Church Fathers such as St. Augustine of Hippo and Tertullian saw Noah’s ark as an allegory of salvation and identified it with the Church, the sole means by which all humankind is saved. This interpretation partly explains why Noah’s ark, or at least its superstructure, often appears in medieval Christian art to look more like a building than a seaworthy ship (Speake 12).
Despite the dove that signals the waters’ dissipation, Roth focuses on the raging storm’s climax. Also remarkable is the absence of humans and animals. In Jan Brueghel the Elder’s painting, we see Noah shepherding all species of animals—a subject well suited to the artist who was well known for his lush landscapes and ability to realistically depict the minute details of both flora and fauna (De Capoa 55).
Unlike Jan Brueghel the Elder’s beautifully verdant landscape and carefully observed animals, the only life we see in Roth’s fresco is the dove carrying the promise of a safe outcome and a beacon of peace. The viewer sees the violent waves and gray rain raging down upon the ark. Perhaps Roth is suggesting the idea that there will always be a storm. There will always be conflict and hardships and, although it is always a challenge to follow God’s path, yet despite this, He will protect us and provide the dove and olive branch every time.
—Robert I. Villani
- De Capoa, Chiara. Old Testament Figures in Art. Edited by Stefano Zuffi. Translated by Thomas Michael Hartmann. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003.
- Cummings, Mildred H. South Solon: The Story of a Meeting House. South Solon, Maine: South Solon Historical Society, 1959.
- Ferguson, George. Signs & Symbols in Christian Art: With Illustrations from Paintings of the Renaissance. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1961.
- King James Bible Online.
- Speake, Jennifer. The Dent Dictionary of Symbols in Christian Art. London: Dent, 1994