The Animals leaving the Ark with the Sacifice of Noah in the distance

attributed to Francesco Castiglione (Genoa 1641 - Genoa 1716). Oil painting on canvas, The Animals leaving the Ark with the Sacifice of Noah in the distance, attributed to Francesco Castiglione (Genoa 1641 - Genoa 1716) (previously Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Genoa 1609 - Mantua 1664), mid-17th century. A herdsman with a donkey or pack ass accompanied by a large variety of animals and birds in twos.There is a mountain and fire in background where Noahs scarifice takes place. The sacrifice of Noah is depicted by a small group (God the Father, Noah, and the man crouching behind him are taken from the supposed Poussin of Noah's Sacrifice at Tatton Park), in the middle distance at the extreme right. The bulk of the composition consists of the large foreground group of a laden pack ass and herdsman surruonded by animals and fowls, two by two. There is no information as to how the painting arrived at Hill Top, where it hung on the stairs, unrecognised and hardly visible beneath the darkened varnish. Evidently the subject would have appealed to Beatrix Potter, even though she may have been unaware of the artistic interest of the painting. The Grosvenor provenance is tracable by a label on the back. Hill Top, Cumbria (Accredited Museum)