Noah's Sacrifice; Noah at right with his hands clapsed in prayer before a fire upon an altar, two men sacrificing a ram on the ground and another bringing a second ram, two men leading two cows and a camel behind the fire 1510 - 1532

Marco Dente created this engraving, “Noah’s Sacrifice,” in Italy sometime between 1515 and 1527. It depicts a scene from the Book of Genesis, in which Noah makes a sacrificial offering to God after surviving the Great Flood. Prints like this one played a crucial role in disseminating artistic ideas throughout Europe. Dente, trained in the circle of the printmaker Marcantonio Raimondi, here spreads the gospel of Raphael, whose classicizing style is evident in the muscular figures, posed with studied grace around a pagan-looking altar. The print embodies the values of Renaissance humanism, but it also speaks to the period’s religious tensions. As the Catholic Church faced growing challenges from Protestant reformers, images such as “Noah’s Sacrifice” asserted the importance of traditional rituals. Art historians study prints like this not only for their aesthetic qualities, but for what they reveal about the social and religious climate of the time. They offer a window into a distant world.