Miraculous Draft of Fishes

Witz uses linear perspective here to show the mountain landscape. You can clearly see the horizon line across the painting where the rolling hills end and the mountains begin. This creates depth to the painting, where things on the perspective line seem farther away.

There are layers of mountains in this painting which adds atmospheric perspective. You can see the mountains behind the first layer are smaller and have less clarity. The blurring gives the illusion of distance and depth, and the blueish-grey hues also add to distinction between mountains.

There are a bunch of houses in the distance here, and the use of overlapping can show which houses are supposed to be in front of others. The partically covered houses are giving the illusion of depth and are seen as located behind the houses that are not overlapped.

The large building to the right and the houses in the back are composed of linear lines. These mathematical buildings create orthogonals that diverge back into space, giving depth and the illusion of three dimensions.

These rocks in the water are painted in griseille, or greyscale. The artist has played with the value (the lightness/darkness of a color) to show the effect of light reflecting off the surface of the rocks. The more value and saturation of white the rocks have, the more exposed they appear to the sun. The rocks underwater would, in real life, have the sun refracting off the surface and therefore the artist has drawn them more in dark shades.

The use of modeling (adjusting the saturation to achieve depth) is done here on Jesus' robes. The artist has used lighter and darker shades of red to achieve shadows and highlights. This effect produces realistic looking fabric the way it looks draped around his body.

Summary: The artist Witz uses many techniques to make this painting as realistic as possible. Firstly, he uses linear and atmospheric perspective to give the painting a lifelike setting. With the linear perspective, the horizon line is clear as the grassy terrain disappears and the mountains start. Witz paints mountains further away with less detail and in darker grey/blue hues, which add atmospheric perspective to create distance. The overlapping technique of the houses also creates distance, where the front overlapping houses look closer to the viewer. Furthermore, the orthogonals created from the linear lines of the houses show the use of mathematics to paint houses as they would look in real life. Modeling and value both are techniques used to show light exposure. The rocks for example, are painted in different values of grey; the more black added shows less light exposure (underwater) and the more white added shows more light exposure (from the sun). The robes on the people, especially Jesus, show differences in saturation, with lighter tones creating the illusion of the drapery and softness of the cloth. Finally, the painting is an oil painting, which can be clearly seen from the richness of the pigments and the detailed effect of the water. The duality of both clarity and blurriness of the water’s reflection could not be achieved with tempera. To conclude, this painting uses an array of techniques all to strengthen the realisticness of the scene.

This painting is oil on wood, which is very noticeable by the variations in saturation, especially the detailing of the water. The rich shades of pigment are smooth and fine, giving the effect of the water. Lighter pigments contrasted with darker oil pigments create the illusion of water 's shadow and deepness.