Table of contents:
Video: The story of one painting: How a cat saved a baby during a flood and went down in history
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Since ancient times, artists of the historical genre, as a rule, have laid real historical events in the plots of their canvases, which is quite logical. So the tragedy that occurred on the Dutch coast in 1421, four centuries later, found its reflection in the painting by a British artist of Dutch origin - Lawrence Alma-Tadema.
Flood of Saint Elizabeth 1421
The tragic event that occurred six centuries ago had dire consequences. And it happened in November 1421, when the coastal territory of the Netherlands was seized by the largest flood caused by the storm "tide of St. Elizabeth", on the very day when the Catholics honor the memory of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia. Hence the name of this powerful flood.
And what is completely curious about this story is that exactly twenty years before this event, on the day of November 18, 1401, the first flood of St. Elizabeth occurred, which washed away dozens of villages from the coast and claimed hundreds of lives of their inhabitants. But in comparison with the second, it was much less destructive and catastrophic.
So the flood of 1421 began on November 18th. The element played out gradually … A storm tide rose, and a powerful wind fiercely drove the waters of the North Sea from Dordrecht towards the Netherlands. The waters of the Meuse and Baal rivers rushed towards the sea water with no less force, which rose very strongly due to heavy rainfall. They partially destroyed the structures of the dams from the inside, weakening their resistance to the pressure of water breaking out from the sea. At a catastrophic moment, the waters of the rivers and the North Sea collided, and a powerful avalanche poured onto the shore, demolishing everything in its path.
In a matter of hours, seething streams flooded about three hundred square kilometers of coastal terrain. As a result, seventy-two settlements with a large population were under water. The number of drowned and missing persons numbered in the thousands. With rough estimates, a figure was named within 10 thousand human lives. The destruction was catastrophic: most of the buildings were destroyed, livestock and crops were washed into the sea. For the survivors, this disaster was a terrible test.
The legend about the cat that saved the baby
The unofficial story is silent, and the legends and traditions that have survived to this day say that after the flood, a kid who survived the disaster was found, saved from certain death by an ordinary domestic cat. And the place where this happened was named Kinderdam - "Children's Dam".
It was this legend about a baby who survived that terrible catastrophe that formed the basis of the painting "The Flood in Biesbosch in 1421", written four centuries later by Laurence Alma-Tadema, an artist of the historical genre, one of the highest paid painters of the Victorian era.
Lawrence depicted this legendary episode on his canvas at the moment when the water receded and the survivors came out of their hiding places to look around. A terrible picture opened before the victims. The village was practically wiped off the face of the earth. And at the dam itself, a baby cradle was seen, which was nailed there after a large water descended. The waves hit her violently against the dam, and a cat galloped along its wooden railing like a madman. And none of the eyewitnesses could even imagine that someone could survive in the cradle. However, it was decided to save the unfortunate cat - after all, a living creature.
And what was the general surprise when a sweetly sleeping baby was found in the cradle. And the jumping cat, from one end of the rail to the other, maintained the balance of the cradle so that the baby's bed remained dry. The baby did not even wake up among the seething waves. What just does not happen in life. Miracles, and nothing more.
History knows many cases when a person, entering into a duel with the water element, came out the winner. Story about the "brave four" who survived without water and food in the open ocean for 49 days, this is a vivid confirmation.
Recommended:
Egyptian finger and other prostheses that went down in the history of human civilization
Some animals, such as geckos and octopuses, are able to regrow lost limbs. People are not capable of this, so it is not surprising that prostheses have existed for thousands of years. Today, thanks to the irrepressible imagination of inventors, amputee patients have more options than ever before, but there are many interesting facts in the history of prosthetic technology
10 ancient (and not so) prostheses that went down in the history of mankind
Some animals, such as geckos and octopuses, are able to regrow lost limbs. People are not capable of this, so it is not surprising that prostheses have existed for thousands of years. Today, thanks to the irrepressible imagination of inventors, amputee patients have more options than ever before, but there are many interesting facts in the history of prosthetic technology
How the lawyer Plevako conquered the halls of Moscow courts and went down in history
There was no person in the history of the Russian legal profession more popular than Fyodor Nikiforovich Plevako. During his lifetime, he was revered by jurists and ordinary people and is still appreciated as a "great orator", "a genius of the word" and even a "metropolitan of the legal profession". His name has become a household name in Russia, denoting the highest level of professionalism. "I'll look for another" Gobber ", - without the slightest irony they talked about the search for the best lawyer. Letters to Plevako were simply signed: “Moscow. Fedor Nikiforovich Plevako "
Privy Councilor, revolutionary, Marshal of Victory and other immigrants from Poland who went down in the history of Russia
After the annexation of the territory of Poland to the Russian Empire, the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Poland had to adapt to the new reality. Some managed in the new conditions not only to rise to the top of the career ladder, but also to play a decisive role in the history of Russia, leaving a memory of themselves for centuries
Diego Rivera is a great mural painter who went down in history as a macho and Frida's husband
It is difficult to imagine the most colorful and opposing couple in the history of art of the last century than the Mexicans Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Frida, who during her lifetime did not have even a tenth of her husband's popularity, unexpectedly became a world famous artist, whose surreal self-portraits are now recognized by everyone. But the once unattainable master got the role of a "companion character" from her biography - a kind of loving macho with a very colorful appearance. And not all