Focus on The World Before the Flood and explore the Subject.
The World Before the Flood illustrates lines 580–597 from Book XI of John Milton's Paradise Lost. Among the visions of the future the Archangel Michael shows to Adam is the world after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden but before the Great Flood. This section of Paradise Lost reflects a passage from the sixth chapter of the Book of Genesis: "That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose," an act which would shortly cause God to regret creating humanity and to cleanse the earth in the Great Flood.The painting shows the stages of courtship as described by Milton, as men are seduced by women and pass from enjoying the company of other men into married life. Etty worked through various configurations for the characters in the painting before settling on his final design.
John Milton Paradise Lost Book of Genesis expulsion from the Garden of Eden Great Flood Archangel Michael Adam