DUCCIO di Buoninsegna
(b. ca. 1255, Siena, d. 1319, Siena)

Appearance on Lake Tiberias (panel 3)

1308-11
Tempera on wood, 37 x 48 cm
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena

This scene is on one of the back crowning panels of the Maestà.

Standing on the bank of the lake, Christ commands the disciples, who have caught nothing, to cast their net once again. This time it is so full of fish that the three men have difficulty hauling it in.

In the Appearance on Lake Tiberias the vertical position of the figures of Christ and Peter is in opposition to the compact volume of the group of apostles, giving balance and harmony to the spatial distribution. The painting is superior in narrative description to the scene of the Calling of Peter and Andrew (very similar in its basic layout), and greater significance is given to the actions of the characters. The two disciples are bending over to lift the heavy catch in a most lifelike pose.