Miraculous Draught of Fishes

This print embodies the time-honored tradition of artists appropriating and reinterpreting the pictorial inventions of their predecessors. Raphael’s celebrated designs for tapestries for the walls of the Sistine Chapel were translated into a three-color woodcut by Ugo da Carpi, whose matrix was then adapted and reprinted by Andrea Andreani. Andreani’s monogram appears in the lower left, along with reference to Raphael as the originator of the composition. Chiaroscuro woodcuts—created by printing with two or more blocks that provide the outline and tonal shading of the forms—became a popular medium in Europe during the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

This print by Ugo da Carpi depicts the miraculous draught of fishes, as told in Luke 5. Although they had not caught any fish the night before, at Jesus' request his disciples placed their nets back into the water. To their surprise, the nets soon started to overflow with fish. In the aftermath of this miraculous occurrence, Peter bows down to Jesus, who sits at the far right.