The Miraculous Draught of Fishes

The scene depicted in this first tapestry, inspired by the Gospel of Luke (5: 1−10), shows the moment Christ tells Peter and his companions where to cast their nets to ensure a large catch following a fruitless night’s fishing

The action unfolds before a vast, luminous landscape where the city of Capernaum and its shores, the calm, transparent waters of the Sea of Galilee or Lake Tiberias, and the sweeping cloudscape, rendered in a harmonious range of gleaming white and blue silks, meet on the horizon. 

The two vessels in the middle distance, weighed down greatly by the heavy catch, make up the stark setting against which the main group of the first apostles stands out. All eyes are on the majestic, serene figure of Jesus, seated at the prow of Andrew and Simon Peter’s boat. Peter, overwhelmed by the miracle, postrates himself before the Master’s divine greatness and Andrew drops to one knee in an expressive gesture. In the other boat John and James put great effort – conveyed by their tense muscles – into pulling in the huge catch, while Zebedee, their father and helmsman, tries to maintain the boat’s unstable balance. The shore in the foreground is enlivened by shellfish, crabs, cranes and wetland plants. 

Borders: The mythological figures of Jupiter, Juno, Neptune and Ceres (black and white), allegorical personifications of the four elements – fire, air, water and earth – are depicted beneath each other in the mirror-symmetrical side borders which are a woven version of the frescoes designed by Raphael’s pupil Giovanni Francesco Penni for the Vatican Loggia. The lower border illustrates the myth of Prometheus, an allegory of divine creation, providence and wisdom. 

Texts: Concha Herrero Carretero