Conrad Witz's Miraculous Draught of Fishes and the Council of Basel

* This study began as a seminar report for Professor Clifton Olds at the University of Michigan in the fall of 1967. I wish to thank Professor Olds for his helpful advice and encouragement.

Abstract

Conrad Witz's Miraculous Draught of Fishes (Fig. 1) is admired especially for its landscape background. The setting for the Biblical episode is a particular view of Lake Leman near Geneva as observed by one standing on the northwest shore of the lake and looking towards the southeast.¹ The ease with which the topography can be identified suggests that the artist must have closely and carefully observed his subject from nature, and thus scholars have characterized Witz as a most progressive artist in his time.² Yet he was evidently so careful and deliberate in selecting and arranging certain details within the landscape that the painting may well be as symbolical as it is descriptive. In fact, it seems to be an allegory of the state of the Church in Witz's time.