The Art of the Sublime

More’s paintings were admired for their celebration of the dramatic beauty and power of nature. Here he creates a mysterious, tonal image of watery grey-green on the popular artistic theme of the deluge. A deluge legend, where a great flood is sent as divine retribution to destroy a civilisation, is common to many faiths and cultures. The best known in Britain is the biblical account in the Book of Genesis, where God sends a flood to kill all life, but instructs Noah to build a large vessel, the Ark, to save his family and a representation of the world’s creatures.