Landscape with Jesus Stilling the Winds and Waves, Two Onlookers in the Foreground (Matthew 8: 23-27; Mark 4: 36-41; Luke 8: 22-25)

This sheet is from a series of drawings, of about the same size, depicting episodes from the New Testament. One of these drawings is the Temptation of Christ before a Landscape with a City (Christie’s, London, 14 December 1982, lot 148). The composition shows the biblical incident of the Storm on the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 8: 23-27; Mark 4: 35-41; Luke 8: 22-25). As Christ and his disciples were in a boat crossing the Sea of Galilee, their boat was struck by a sudden tempest which threatened to sink it. Fearful, the disciples awoke Christ who was asleep on a cushion in the stern of the boat. He stilled the winds and the sea, and then rebuked the disciples for their fears. Domenico has captured the moment when the disciples rush to wake Christ, who may be seen asleep, his head leaning on his bent arm, in the bow – rather than the stern – of the small boat. On the shore, stand two unidentified onlookers.

In his recent dissertation on Campagnola’s landscapes, Tobias Nickel has rejected the attribution to Campagnola and suggested a possible alternate attribution to Constantino Malombra.