The Miraculous Draught of Fishes
(5000-1503)

At the left, and other disciples of pull their teeming nets of fish aboard a boat. After an unsuccessful night of fishing on the Sea of Tiberius, the tired and hungry disciples had seen a man standing on the shore and followed his advice to cast their nets over the boat's right side. Their miraculous catch inspired Peter to recognize Christ, appearing after his death and ; in the middle scene, Peter enters the water to meet him. On the right, Christ and the disciples share a meal around a fire. The depicts peasants hauling in baskets of fish to take to the market, forming a contemporary parallel to the biblical scene. Joachim Beuckelaer specialized in combining subjects with religious scenes. In The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, he contrasted the spiritual world of the with the materialism of the contemporary world.

Oil on panel (1563)

by Joachim Beuckelaer (Netherlandish, about 1534-about 1574)