The Miraculous Draught of Fishes
Medium
Chiaroscuro woodcut from three blocks in brown
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 1/8 × 15 3/8 in. (23.2 × 39 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1922
Accession Number
22.67.39
Art Historical Context
Behold *The Miraculous Dra of Fishes*, a chiaroscuro woodcut around 1540–50 by Niccolò Vicentino a design by the High Renaissance Raphael (Raffaellozio da Urbino). This print depicts the biblical miracle from the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus instructs his disciples to cast their nets into the sea, resulting in an overflowing catch of fish—a powerful symbol of divine abundance and the call to apostleship. Raphael's graceful figures and dramatic composition capture the Renaissance ideal of harmony and humanism, faithfully reproduced here to bring his genius to a wider audience. Vicentino's maste...