Christ Appearing to St Peter on the Sea of Tiberias

This 1567 panel from the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle depicts the post-Resurrection appearance of Christ to his disciples on the Sea of Tiberias (John 21), at which the miraculous catch of fish prefigures the apostolic mission. Van Heemskerck, in his late sixties at the time of this work, brings a lifetime of Italianate figure practice to the lakeside scene. The episode was popular with Flemish and Dutch painters because it combined a maritime or riverine landscape with a focused narrative of recognition — the moment Peter, stripped for work, leaps from the boat upon recognising the risen Christ on the shore. The Bowes Museum holds a remarkable collection of European old masters amassed by John and Josephine Bowes in mid-nineteenth-century France, and Van Heemskerck's panel reached the collection through this collecting activity rather than the Dutch art trade.

The panel support enables the fine detail Van Heemskerck consistently applied to his mature figure works. Christ on the shore is positioned as a luminous, calm focal point against the darker water and boat. Peter's leaping figure in the boat is rendered with the Michelangelesque musculature Van Heemskerck absorbed in Rome and maintained throughout his career. The fish-laden net is handled with specific textural attention.