Paradise

This picture was given to Princess Amalie von Solms as a wedding present on 21 December, 1626. The composition is appropriate to the late Mannerist view of landscape. Another component of the spatial depth is created by a diagonal of light shining in from the top left, which makes the countless birds stand out effectively in their lightness against the highly conspicuous numbers of large and small animals on the ground. They are all crowded close together in a number of positions, reproduced with conscientious zoological accuracy, set in plant -life that is equally faithfully recorded. A dodo can be seen bottom right, a flightless bird brought to Europe by Dutch sailors in 1598. In the background is the first human couple in the Fall of Man. | Prestel Museum Guides - Gemäldegalerie Berlin , 2017