Overview
The resurrected Christ is depicted backlit by the rising sun on the shore of Lake Galilee as he appears to seven of his believers in a boat. As told in John 21:1–13, they had been fishing all night without success. Christ told them to cast their nets to the right side of the boat, where the catch would be plentiful. When Peter saw Christ, he jumped into the water to swim to shore. Here, as daylight begins to brighten the waves and sky, Peter extends his leg from the boat, about to jump.
Although the attribution cannot be confirmed with certainty, this work was probably created by the Amsterdam-born painter Lambert Sustris. As a young man, he moved to Venice and is believed to have worked in the studios of both
This painting has previously been attributed to Tintoretto based on stylistic elements such as the dramatic treatment of light and the dry white brushwork that highlights the rolling waves. However, the painting’s lack of impasto—thick buildup of paint on the surface—and differences in figural types and coloring cast uncertainty on the attribution to Tintoretto and point to Sustris as its author.
Entry
The high quality of Christ at the Sea of Galilee has always been recognized. Seascapes are rare in Venetian painting, and here the turbulent waters, with their flickering highlights, as well as the blustering clouds and the play of light on the distant shore, are rendered with a painterly brio that has in retrospect evoked the names of
The picture has never been located convincingly in Tintoretto’s oeuvre: datings have ranged from August L. Mayer’s 1546/1555, through Rodolfo Pallucchini and Paola Rossi’s 1558/1562 and Terisio Pignatti’s later 1570s, to Tintoretto’s last years, 1591/1594, as favored by Lionello Venturi, Erich von der Bercken, and Pierluigi De Vecchi.
In 1948, Hans Tietze gave the picture to
As the present writer has argued elsewhere, the best explanation for the picture’s peculiar genius lies in an attribution to the Amsterdam-born painter
The attribution of the Gallery’s painting to Lambert Sustris is based upon strong similarities in works by Lambert to the figure of Christ, the small figures of the apostles, and the landscape. The attenuated figure of Christ, with his rectangular-shaped head, follows the mannerist conventions that Sustris frequently used in his early paintings. Because of the sketchiness of the figure, especially close connections can be found in Lambert’s drawings. For example, in a drawing depicting a Sacrifice to Priapus (Albertina, Vienna)
The landscape in the Gallery’s picture shows striking similarities to Lambert’s Paduan frescoes (for example, one at the Villa Godi at Lonedo, Lugo di Vicenza; see fig. 1), especially in the treatment of the receding shoreline, the swaths of yellow and green defining the hills in the middle distance, the tree stump, the puffy clouds, and even the boat itself.
Tintoretto specialists have remained mostly silent about the attribution of the Christ at the Sea of Galilee since it has been linked to Sustris.
Christ’s pose is loosely related to several other paintings from the Tintoretto studio, including two versions of the Raising of Lazarus, datable to 1573 (private collection) and 1576 (Katharinenkirche, Lübeck).
The painting represents one of Christ’s several earthly manifestations following the Resurrection, his appearance on the shore of Lake Galilee on the occasion traditionally known as the second “miraculous draught of fishes.” As recounted in John 21:1–13, seven apostles had fished all night in a boat on Lake Galilee, without success. At dawn, Christ appeared at the shore and told them to cast their nets to the right side of the boat, where the catch would be plentiful. When Peter recognized Christ, he cast himself into the water to swim to the shore. The subject is more frequent in northern than in Italian painting, and the composition of the Washington painting, with its panoramic landscape, is characteristically northern in type.
In 16th-century Venice, biblical narrative pictures of this size and format were often hung in the large central halls (portego or sala) of private palaces.
Robert Echols
March 21, 2019
Provenance
Count Joseph Gallotti.[1] (Durlacher Brothers, New York).[2] Arthur Sachs [1880-1975], New York, by 1925;[3] sold March 1943 through (Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York) and (Moses & Singer, New York) to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1952 to NGA.
Exhibition History
- 1927
- Loan to display with permanent collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1927.
- 1932
- Loan to display with permanent collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1932-1933.
- 1933
- A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, 1933, no. 135, repro., as Christ on the Lake of Galilee.
- 1934
- Landscape Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1934, no. 5, as Christ Walking on the Water.
- 1935
- Loan to display with permanent collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1935-1938.
- 1938
- Exhibition of Venetian Painting From the Fifteenth Century through the Eighteenth Century, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, June-July 1938, no. 66, repro., as Christ on the Sea at Galilee.
- 1938
- Religious Art, an exhibition of fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth-century paintings; sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, metalwork, rosaries, textiles, stained glass and prints, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1938-1939, no. 35, repro.
- 1938
- Venetian Paintings of the 15th & 16th Centuries, M. Knoedler and Company, New York, April 1938, no. 16, repro., as Christ on the Sea of Galilee.
- 1939
- A Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Jacopo Robusti, il Tintoretto, 1519-1594, Durlacher Brothers, New York, February-March 1939, no. 5, as Christ on the Sea of Galilee.
- 1939
- Masterpieces of Art. European Paintings and Sculptures from 1300-1800, New York World's Fair, May-October 1939, no. 377, repro.
- 1942
- Loan to display with permanent collection, Society of Liberal Arts, Joslyn Memorial (now Joslyn Art Museum), Omaha, 1942-1943.
- 1946
- Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 825.
- 1979
- The Golden Century of Venetian Painting, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1979-1980, no. 36, repro.
- 1988
- Loan to display with permanent collection, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen, 1988-1989.
Technical Summary
The support is formed of four irregularly sized pieces of similar, medium-weight, twill canvas that have been sewn together. A large piece in the center has been augmented with a thin strip to the right extending the entire height of the painting, ranging from 8.25 centimeters in width at the bottom to 10.5 centimeters at the top; a strip to the left of 37–37.5 centimeters in width extending the entire height of the primary fabric; and a narrow strip along the bottom spanning the left addition and the primary fabric, but ending before the addition on the right, which ranges from 2 centimeters in height on the left to 6.25 centimeters in height on the right. The entire composite has been lined to two pieces of plain-weave fabric.
All four pieces of canvas were prepared with a gesso ground followed by a layer of glue.
The paint is abraded in many places, and discrete losses to paint and ground are scattered throughout, particularly along the seam joins and edges of the painting. The painting was relined, cleaned, and restored by Stephen Pichetto in 1944. In 1993–1995, it was treated again to remove or reduce discolored varnish and extensive retouching and to inpaint the abrasion.
Robert Echols and Joanna Dunn based on the examination report by Paula De Cristofaro and the treatment report by Susanna Griswold
March 21, 2019
Bibliography
- 1901
- Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell’arte italiana. 11 vols. Milan, 1901-1940: 9, part 4(1929):332, repro.
- 1925
- Borenius, Tancred. “A Seascape by Tintoretto.” Apollo 2 (July–December 1925): 249.
- 1931
- Venturi, Lionello. Pitture italiane in America. Milan, 1931: no. 411.
- 1932
- Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places. Oxford, 1932: 562, 678, as Tintoretto.
- 1933
- Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America. Translated by Countess Vanden Heuvel and Charles Marriott. 3 vols. New York and Milan, 1933: 3:no. 555, as Tintoretto.
- 1939
- Borenius, Tancred. "An Exhibition of Venetian Painting." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 74 (1939): 138, as Tintoretto.
- 1942
- Bercken, Erich von der. Die Gemälde des Jacopo Tintoretto. Munich, 1942: 88, 118, fig. 216, as Tintoretto.
- 1944
- Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 74, color repro., as Christ Walking on the Sea.
- 1944
- Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 55, repro., as Christ Walking on the Sea.
- 1945
- Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 130, repro.
- 1948
- Tietze, Hans. Tintoretto: The Paintings and Drawings. New York, 1948: 381, as El Greco.
- 1950
- Chatzidakis, Manolis. “O Domenikos Theotokopoulos kai e kretiké zographiké.” Kretika Chronika 4 (1950): 371–440, as El Greco.
- 1951
- Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 98-99, repro.
- 1954
- Tietze, Hans. Treasures of the Great National Galleries. New York, 1954: 15, 125, pl. 205 (“ascribed to Tintoretto, but may also be considered as a possible El Greco”).
- 1956
- Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 30, color repro.
- 1957
- Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:183, pl. 71, as Tintoretto.
- 1957
- Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 37.
- 1959
- Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 203, repro.
- 1960
- Shapley, Fern Rusk. Later Italian Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Six in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 32, color repro.
- 1960
- The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 25.
- 1961
- Seligman, Germain. Merchants of Art: 1880-1960, Eighty Years of Professional Collecting. New York, 1961: repro. pl. 87.
- 1962
- Wethey, Harold E. El Greco and His School. 2 vols. Princeton, 1962: 1:90, n. 113.
- 1963
- Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 158, repro.
- 1965
- Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 128.
- 1966
- Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:194, color repro.
- 1966
- Schiller, Gertrud. Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst. 6 vols. Gütersloh, 1966-1990: 3:117.
- 1968
- National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 115, repro.
- 1970
- De Vecchi, Pierluigi. L’opera completa del Tintoretto. Milan, 1970: 133, no. 290, pl. 63, as Tintoretto.
- 1973
- Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 52-53, fig. 92, as Tintoretto.
- 1975
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 340, repro.
- 1979
- Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:465-467; 2:pl. 332, 332A.
- 1979
- Sutton, Denys. “Venetian Painting of the Golden Age.” Apollo 110 (1979): 386, as Tintoretto.
- 1982
- Pallucchini, Rodolfo, and Paola Rossi. Tintoretto: le opere sacre e profane. 2 vols. Venice, 1982: 1:178-179, no. 224; 2:fig. 292, as by Tintoretto.
- 1984
- Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 228, no. 287, color repro.
- 1985
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 392, repro.
- 1992
- National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 104, repro.
- 1996
- Dal Pozzolo, Enrico Maria. “Rilevanze gestuali nell'opera del pittore: problemi di metodo e legittimità interpretative.” In Jacopo Tintoretto nel quarto centenario della morte: atti del convegno internationale di studi. Edited by Paola Rossi and Lionello Puppi. Padua, 1996: 149, fig. 331, as Tintoretto.
- 1996
- Echols, Robert. "Tintoretto, Christ at the Sea of Galilee, and the Unknown Later Career of Lambert Sustris," Venezia Cinquecento VI, no. 12 (1996): 93-149.
- 2001
- Herrmann Fiore, Kristina. Paolo Veronese: la predica di Sant'Antonio ai Pesci; spunti di riflessione per una rilettura del dipinto restaurato. Rome, 2001: 36, fig. 35, as attributed to Tintoretto or Friedrich Sustris.
- 2009
- Echols, Robert, and Frederick Ilchman. “Toward a New Tintoretto Catalogue, with a Checklist of Revised Attributions and a New Chronology.” In Jacopo Tintoretto: Actas del congreso internacional/Proceedings of the International Symposium, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, February 26-27, 2007. Madrid, 2009: 149, no. C90, as Lambert Sustris.
- 2010
- Cassegrain, Guillaume. Tintoret. Paris, 2010: 45, fig. 21, as Tintoretto or Lambert Sustris.