Rembrandt van Rijn (Leyden, 1606 - 1669, Amsterdam)
Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, 1633
Oil on canvas, 160 x 128 cm (63 x 50 3/8 in.)
This vertical oil painting titled Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, by Rembrandt Van Rijn, depicts a dramatic seascape in which Christ and his followers are embroiled in a struggle to gain control of their boat during an intense storm. To our left, waves push up against the side of the boat at a forty-five-degree angle, splashing water into the vessel, which has been forced up. There, several of Christ’s disciples work to pull on the mast and lines where the main sail has ripped, bellowing out into the right portion of the canvas. A man at the tip of the raised end of the boat, squats and looks up as he pulls the rope on the leftmost sail. Below is a group of three men who surround the mast in various stages of struggle, as they fight to hold onto the boat and stabilize themselves. In contrast, the eight men to our right, at the bottom end of the boat, surround Christ. The group is somewhat shrouded in darkness. Many are talking and pointing, and one leans over the side, seasick. A figure in blue places his hand over his head, as he gazes out at the viewer. The figure of Christ sits among the group, reclining in a blue robe, as he tries to calm his disciples. At the bottom right of the canvas, rays of light shine onto the smooth, oddly calm waves below, contrasting the rough seas to our left. The contrast of dark and light throughout the painting is noteworthy, with two-thirds of the painting in darkness. Dark clouds move across the top right of the canvas, while a blue sky and puffy white clouds break through the storm to our left. The source of light highlights the white tops of the waves, the beige sails, and the figures on the left side of the boat, enveloping them in a blinding white light.
Dutch Room
Commentary
Rembrandt’s most striking narrative painting in America, Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, is also his only painted seascape. Dated 1633, it was made shortly after Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam from his native Leiden, when he was establishing himself as the city’s leading painter of portraits and historical subjects. The detailed rendering of the scene, the figures’ varied expressions, the relatively polished brushwork, and the bright coloring are characteristic of Rembrandt’s early style. Eighteenth-century critics like Arnold Houbraken often preferred this early period to Rembrandt’s later, broader, and less descriptive manner.
The biblical scene pitches nature against human frailty – both physical and spiritual. The panic-stricken disciples struggle against a sudden storm, and fight to regain control of their fishing boat as a huge wave crashes over its bow, ripping the sail and drawing the craft perilously close to the rocks in the left foreground. One of the disciples succumbs to the sea’s violence by vomiting over the side. Amidst this chaos, only Christ, at the right, remains calm, like the eye of the storm. Awakened by the disciples’ desperate pleas for help, he rebukes them: “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” and then rises to calm the fury of wind and waves. Nature’s upheaval is both cause and metaphor for the terror that grips the disciples, magnifying the emotional turbulence and thus the image’s dramatic impact.
The painting showcases the young Rembrandt’s ability not only to represent a sacred history, but also to seize our attention and immerse us in an unfolding pictorial drama. For greatest immediacy, he depicted the event as if it were a contemporary scene of a fishing boat menaced by a storm. The spectacle of darkness and light formed by the churning seas and blackening sky immediately attracts our attention. We then become caught up in the disciples’ terrified responses, each meticulously characterized to encourage and sustain prolonged, empathetic looking. Only one figure looks directly out at us as he steadies himself by grasping a rope and holds onto his cap. His face seems familiar from Rembrandt’s self-portraits, and as his gaze fixes on ours we recognize that we have become imaginative participants in the painter’s vivid dramatization of a disaster Christ is about to avert.
Source: Michael Zell, "Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 145.
The biblical scene pitches nature against human frailty – both physical and spiritual. The panic-stricken disciples struggle against a sudden storm, and fight to regain control of their fishing boat as a huge wave crashes over its bow, ripping the sail and drawing the craft perilously close to the rocks in the left foreground. One of the disciples succumbs to the sea’s violence by vomiting over the side. Amidst this chaos, only Christ, at the right, remains calm, like the eye of the storm. Awakened by the disciples’ desperate pleas for help, he rebukes them: “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” and then rises to calm the fury of wind and waves. Nature’s upheaval is both cause and metaphor for the terror that grips the disciples, magnifying the emotional turbulence and thus the image’s dramatic impact.
The painting showcases the young Rembrandt’s ability not only to represent a sacred history, but also to seize our attention and immerse us in an unfolding pictorial drama. For greatest immediacy, he depicted the event as if it were a contemporary scene of a fishing boat menaced by a storm. The spectacle of darkness and light formed by the churning seas and blackening sky immediately attracts our attention. We then become caught up in the disciples’ terrified responses, each meticulously characterized to encourage and sustain prolonged, empathetic looking. Only one figure looks directly out at us as he steadies himself by grasping a rope and holds onto his cap. His face seems familiar from Rembrandt’s self-portraits, and as his gaze fixes on ours we recognize that we have become imaginative participants in the painter’s vivid dramatization of a disaster Christ is about to avert.
Source: Michael Zell, "Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 145.