The Miraculous Draft of Fishes

Konrad Witz's Miraculous Draft of Fishes, painted in 1444, is a revolutionary work of early Northern Renaissance painting now in the Museum of Art and History, Geneva. Remarkably, Witz set the biblical scene on the shores of Lake Geneva rather than the Sea of Galilee, creating what is considered the first topographically accurate landscape in European painting—the mountains of Mont Blanc and Le Môle are clearly identifiable. The panel was part of an altarpiece for the Cathedral of Saint-Pierre, Geneva.

Witz achieves unprecedented naturalism in the transparent water, the reflected mountains, and the accurately rendered shoreline, combining meticulous observation of nature with bold, sculptural figure modeling.