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At God’s command, Noah built an ark to save a male and female of each species from the Flood. The biblical story enabled the artist to depict more than 100 different species, all zoologically identifiable. In addition to the native animals, Savery was particularly interested in the exotic ones, about which he learned from Dutch merchants’ reports and from animal books. As court painter to Emperor Rudolf II, he had access to the menageries in Prague, where he drew parrots and predatory animals from nature.