The landscape in the background is in the Ferrara style, while the arrangement of the figures reveals the influence of Raphael, reworked through the naturalism of Dosso and Titian. The subject of the painting is the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, an episode reported in the Gospel of John (21.1–14): After the Resurrection, Christ appears on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias to Peter, two disciples and the sons of Zebedee, commanding them to pull up the net on the right-hand side of the boat, promising that it will be full of fish, to enjoy together.
Borghese collection, documented inManilli 1650, p. 82; Inventory 1693, room XI, no. 74; Inventory 1790, room VII, no. 112; Inventory Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, p. 30. Purchased by the Italian state, 1902.
Exhibitions
2008, Ferrara, Castello Estense
2013, Illeggio
2017, Milano, Palazzo Reale
2022, Ferrara, Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Programma MiC: 100 opere tornano a casa)
Conservation and Diagnostic
1874 Pietro Principi
1903 Luigi Bartolucci (pest control)
1910 Luigi Bartolucci
1933 Renato Guttuso
1955 Alvaro Esposti
1965 Alvaro Esposti
2003 Laura Ferretti e Francesca Tizzani
2008 Laboratorio di Restauro ex Soprintendenza c/o Palazzo Barberini
2011 Nicoletta Naldoni
2011 Emmebi (diagnostics)
2019 Koinè (painting and frame)
2020 Measure3D di Danilo Salzano (laser scan 3D)
2020 Erredicci (diagnostics)
2021 ArsMensurae di Stefano Ridolfi (diagnostics)
2021 IFAC-CNR (diagnostics)
Commentary
The episode depicted in this highly refined painting is drawn from the Gospel of John (21.1–8) and would be more correctly titled Christ and his Disciples in Galilee. The painting concentrates on the moment when, after an unsuccessful night of fishing, the disciples in Galilee have cast their net on the right-hand side of the boat, following Christ’s instructions, and now have a large catch of fish and Peter, recognising his voice and gesture, ties up his tunic and wades through the sea of Tiberias to join his Lord.
This painting must have entered Scipione’s collection as an early acquisition or gift, since it is reported for the first time by Jacopo Manilli (1650): ‘Above the bed, the Conversion of St Paul, a large painting, and beneath it, the small St Peter, walking on the waves, are by Garofali’. The painting was, as per custom and tradition, displayed as a pendant to a Conversion of Saul by the same artist (inv. 347), referencing the call to faith by falling to the ground or immersing oneself in water.
The composition of this painting reveals Garofalo’s skill in representing an episode that takes place in water: the dawn light in the background to the left illuminates the scene of the miracle of the fishes and leads the viewer to the act of faith that unfolds on the right, on the shore of the sea in front of a cityscape. The palette and handling of the landscape is a mix of Titian and the art of the Dossi brothers (Fioravanti Baraldi 1993), the latter in its most Raphaelesque form (Gruyer 1897; Berenson 1932), including in the profiles of the figures.
Scholars agree that the painting is datable to the 1520s (Fioravanti Baraldi 1976-1977), favouring the more specific date of 1524 (Herrmann Fiore 2002).
R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle gallerie italiane. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 198
A. Venturi, Storia dell’Arte Italiana, IX, 4, Milano1929, pp. 318, n.1
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of Renaissance. A list of the Principal Artist and their Works with an Index of Places, Oxford 1932, p. 219
B. Berenson, Pitture italiane del Rinascimento: catalogo dei principali artisti e delle loro opere con un indice dei luoghi, Milano 1936, p. 236
P. Della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, I, Roma 1955, n. 58
P. Della Pergola, L’inventario Borghese del 1693. III, «Arte Antica e Moderna», 30,1965, p. 209, n. 587
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools, I, London 1968, p. 157
A. M. Fioravanti Baraldi, Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo tra Rinascimento e Manierismo. Contributo alla catalogazione delle opere dell’artista dal 1512 al 1550,1976-1977, pp. 48, 122-123
A. M. Fioravanti Baraldi, Il Garofalo. Benvenuto Tisi pittore (c. 1476-1559), Rimini1993, n. 95
C. Stefani, in Galleria Borghese, a cura di P. Moreno e C. Stefani, Milano 2000, p. 258
K. Herrmann Fiore, in Il museo senza confini. Dipinti ferraresi del Rinascimento nelle raccolte romane, a cura di J. Bentini e S. Guarino, Milano2002, pp. 164-165, scheda 21
K. Hermann Fiore, Roma scopre un tesoro. Dalla Pinacoteca ai depositi, un museo che non ha più segreti, Roma 2006, p. 79
M. Danieli, scheda n. 32, in Garofalo. Pittore della Ferrara Estense, catalogo della mostra (Ferrara, Castello Estense, 5 aprile - 6 luglio 2008), a cura di T. Kustodieva, M. Lucco, Milano 2008, p. 162
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