User:Dada1916/The Storm on the Sea of Galilee

Dada1916/The Storm on the Sea of Galilee
Artist	Rembrandt van Rijn
Year	1633
Medium	Oil canvas
Movement	Dutch Golden Age painting
Dimensions	160 cm × 128 cm (62.99 in × 50.39 in)
Location	Whereabouts unknown since 1990

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee is a 1633

Description

The painting, in vertical format, shows a close-up view of Christ's disciples struggling frantically against the heavy storm to regain control of their fishing boat. A huge wave beats the bow and rips the sail. One of the disciples is seen vomiting over the side. Another one, looking directly out at the viewer, is a self-portrait of the artist.^[1] Only Christ, depicted on the right with a faint halo around his head, remains calm.^[1]

The painting depicts a story from Luke 8:22-25 where the disciples in charge of the vessel were scared by the sudden storm and awoke a sleeping Jesus in their panic. Rembrandt's version of the Biblical story is one of the more accurate depictions of this event.^[3] The perspective is lowered so that the sky takes up more space than the sea; however the boat, its crew, and Christ remain the main focal point of the painting. The ship itself is similar to a Hoeker, which is a North Sea fishing vessel. Rembrandt changed the hull to make it more asymmetrical while the mast itself appears heavier than the classical square or triangular sail.^[4] Dutch artists often strived to be accurate in their portrayal of ships in seascapes; they wanted the ships to look realistic,^[5] but Christian Tumpel, a German art historian, noted Rembrandt's tendency to use earlier Bible illustrations as an excuse to adapt props like the disciples' ship to his own imagination.^[4]

The use of light and shadow, defined as tenebrism, is employed in the painting as a visual depiction of Christ’s miracle in calming the sea.^[6] Light streams in from the upper left of the painting and the clear, blue sky can be seen peeking out from the storm. As the scene moves towards the right, the boat and the crew are thrown back into shadow.            

The close-up treatment of the subject and the overall composition go back to a print made by Adriaen Collaert after a design by the Flemish artist Maerten de Vos. That print depicting The storm on the sea of Galilei was plate 8 in the 12-part Vita, passio et Resvrrectio Iesv Christ which was published by Jan and Raphael Sadeler in Antwerp in 1583. Rembrandt's painting follows the portrait format in his composition and also depicts the boat in a forward tilting position. Like in the print, most of the space of the work is taken up by the main motif, which is the disciples on the boat struggling against the elements.^[7]

History

Classified as a historical painting,^[4] The Storm on the Sea of Galilee is an oil on canvas painting and is about 160 x 128 cm large. It was painted when Rembrandt was just twenty-nine years old and is currently the largest historical work he completed, as well as his earliest paintings. The creation of The Storm on the Sea of Galilee coaligned with his move from Amsterdam to Leidan. It is unknown if it was painted for a commission since no record has survived to indicate it as such.^[4] A sketch done by Rembrandt in the same year as The Storm on the Sea of Galilee depicts Christ walking on water to assist a drowning sailor, titled Christ Walking on the Waves.^[4] This sketch was based off of the passage in Matthew 14:22-33 in which Christ walks on the water towards his disciples in the fishing boat; Peter attempts to walk towards Jesus but instead sinks and has to be rescued.^[8] Since the water Christ walked on was the Sea of Galilee, this makes the sketch the second work by Rembrandt to depict this same sea.

Dutch Seascapes

Dutch seascapes became more popular in the 1600s and were largely considered to be a response to how painting style was changing at the time. Vertical surfaces, cartographic perspective, and religious themes were not as widespread and instead imaginary depth, a lower horizon, and a more realistic depiction of nature became more prevalent.^[9] Allan Sekula, a visual artist, attributes this shift instead to the creation of what he calls "maritime space". He attributes this shift to four changes within Dutch society: an increase of trade, the switch from not just fighting wars on land but on the sea as well, techniques like cartography and navigation which were considered cultural in Dutch society, and the incorporation of political and maritime motifs in art.^[9]

The Netherlands began to emerge as a new world power after the end of the Eighty Years War with Spain. Naval trade would become an important new aspect of Dutch life, specifically the formation of the Dutch West India Company and the Dutch East India Company, which helped usher in the Dutch seascapes painting trend. These paintings would be further broken down into three different types: naval battles, ship portraiture, and seascape scenes. It was common for religious elements to be added into these seascapes, like what Rembrandt did with The Storm on the Sea of Galilee.^[10]

Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom is credited with popularizing seascapes within the Netherlands; the trend would spread throughout Europe and to America in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.^[11]

Provenance

In 1898, Isabella Stewart Gardner purchased The Storm on the Sea of Galilee for 6,000 dollars (around 218,194 dollars in 2023). Rembrandt's painting was bought from the art dealers Asher Wertheimer and Colnaghi & Co. who received it from Henry Francis Pelham-Clinton-Hope the same year Gardner would purchase it. The first owner listed on the provenance is Tymen Jacobsz Hinloopen (also known as Thijmen), ^[1] a leader of the Dutch and Whaling company of Noordsche Compagnie.^[12] He purchased The Storm on the Sea of Galilee in 1644 when it was originally referred to as A Painting of St. Peter's Ship.^[1] It was not purchased directly by Garner but instead the purchase was handled by the art historian and art critic Bernard Berenson.^[1] It is unknown the exact time Gardner and Berenson first met, but they would establish a strong partnership where Berenson would help Gardner purchase artwork like The Rape of Europa in 1896.^[13][14] Bernard Berenson was very involved in helping Gardner establish her public collection and would write to each other frequently about the process.^[14]

After Garner purchased the painting, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee was hung in the room Garner referred to as the Dutch Room.^[1] Rembrandt’s painting would be added into the same collection as one of his self-portraits and The Concert by Johannes Vermeer. It would stay in this room until 1990 when thieves broke into the Isabella Stewart Garner museum and cut The Storm on the Sea of Galilee from its own frame.^[3]  

Theft

On the morning of March 18, 1990, two thieves disguised as police officers broke into the museum and stole The Storm on the Sea of Galilee and 12 other works^[2] in what is considered to be the biggest art theft in U.S. history. The heist remains unsolved.^[2][15] The Storm on the Sea of Galilee was removed from the museum by being cut from its frame, which still hangs on the walls of the Garner museum due to Garner's wishes stating nothing be added or removed from the collection.

On March 18, 2013, the

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee appears in season one episode 13 of Marvel's Iron Fist. It is displayed on the wall of Harold's penthouse.^[19]

In 2019, an artist by the name of Giovanni DeCunto painted interpretations done of the thirteen stolen works from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The paintings were displayed to the public between March 1st and March 17th 2019.^[20]

See also

• List of stolen paintings

References