The Miraculous Draught of Fishes (1540–50 (republished 1609), Met-Objekt 5985)
Original title: The Miraculous Draught of Fishes
kurzbeschreibung
Made between 1540 and 1550 and reissued in 1609, Niccolò Vicentino's chiaroscuro woodcut The Miraculous Draught of Fishes gathers a group of people in a boat, their gestures and glances turned toward the water. The sheet was printed from three blocks in a pale green.
Description
A large boat takes up much of the picture. Inside it, several figures in contemporary dress stand and sit: some straighten up as if speaking or gesturing, others lean forward as though about to pull something from the water. A landscape of mountains and a river closes off the distance. Grey governs the colouring, with a light green in the shadowed parts of the boat. Light falling from the front picks out the contours of the people and the hull.
Context
Niccolò Vicentino, a sixteenth-century Italian woodcutter, is known for his chiaroscuro woodcuts. From about 1516 the technique became popular in Italy as a way of imitating drawings on toned paper. This print rests on the artist's own invention, within the Venetian printing tradition. That the sheet was reissued in 1609 suggests a lasting demand for religious subjects of this kind.
Impact
Delicate shading and the contrast of grey and green give the sheet a quiet, almost meditative presence. The plain shape of the boat and the gesturing figures make the story of the miraculous catch easy to follow. Through the chiaroscuro technique the image gains a painterly depth that goes beyond the usual linear effect of a woodcut.
Technique
Printed from three blocks in pale green, the work survives in its third and final state (III/III). In this chiaroscuro method a tone block lays down the ground while one or more colour blocks set the shadows and highlights. The sheet measures 23.7 × 33.5 cm, a usual format for woodcuts of this kind.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)