mythological significance in ancient Greece and Rome, religious symbol of Christianity ... fish by Hieronymus Bosch, still lifes, fish of modern artists Matisse, Dalí, Chagall ...

1. God sent the Archangel Raphael to accompany Tobias ...
Then the angel said unto him, Take the fish. And the young man laid hold of the fish, and drew it to land. (Tobit 6.3)

6. symbol of Western civilisation
witness to the different periods in the history of art

7. Fish
in Western painting

8. The blind old man Tobit, a merchant and devout Jew, sent his son, Tobias, on a long
journey to collect a debt.
God sent the Archangel Raphael to accompany Tobias and his dog.
Tobias holds receipt of the debt, labelled ‘ricordo’, in one hand and a caught and gutted
fish in the other
Raphael had instructed Tobias to catch and gut the fish, keeping its heart, liver and gall.
Raphael explained that these organs could be used as ointment to cure blindness
and be burnt to drive away evil spirits. He holds the precious organs in a little box.
Andrea del Verrocchio
Tobias and the Angel
Tobie et l’Ange
1470–1480
National Gallery, London

10. Composition full of serenity and softness ...
The Archangel Raphael, with spread wings, accompanying Tobias.
He holds a small "medicine box" in his hand.
Tobias has his right hand resting on the hip to which the fish is attached.
Pietro Perugino, Le Pérugin
The Archangel Raphael with Tobias
L'Archange Raphaël et Tobie
1496-1500
National Gallery, London

13. The Virgin enthroned with the Jesus on her knee,
St Jerome with a lion, his main attribute, and a magnificent book
and
the Archangel Raphael, presents Tobias holding the fish
Raphael, Raphaël
The Holy Family with Raphael, Tobias and Saint Jerome, or the Virgin with a Fish
La Vierge au poisson
1513-1514
Museo del Prado, Madrid

16. A small cherub holds a parasol over Mary and Jesus, thus providing additional shade along
with the verdant oak tree.
Saint Joseph,
Archangel Raphael
and
the young Tobias
Girolamo dai Libri
Madonna dell'ombrello
1530
Museo Civico d'Arte di Castelvecchio, Verona

20. a narrow room,
a table, an artful still-life:
earthenware jugs, glasses, knives, bread
and
fish, an ancient Christian symbol
Dieric Bouts
Christ in the House of Simon
Le christ dans la maison de Simon le pharisien
1440s
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

23. The Appearance to the Apostles alludes to the story in Luke,
where Jesus appears before the disciples and, to dispel all their
doubts, eats with them.
The meal is made up of fish that they caught in the Lake Tiberias
thanks to the recommendation given to them by Jesus.
Duccio di Buoninsegna
Maestà, Appearance While the Apostles are at Table
Maesta, Apparition du Christ pendant le repas des apôtres
1308-11
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena

26. The earliest known faithful portrayal of a landscape in European art history ...
the disciples bring out a net full of fish,
Peter wading toward Jesus to greet him ...
Only the figure of Christ standing at the edge of the shore does not cast a reflection,
the implication being that the laws of nature do not apply to the divine.
Konrad Witz
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes
La Pêche miraculeuse
1443-44
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva

29. A great fish with the head of a dog
and
Jonah strangely fresh
Jonah is swallowed by a large fish, in whose belly he spends three days
and three nights. While in the great fish, Jonah prays to God in his affliction
and commits to thanksgiving and to paying what he has vowed.
God then commands the fish to vomit Jonah out.
Jan Brueghel the Elder, Jan Brueghel l'Ancien
Jonah Leaving the Whale
Jonas quittant la baleine
1597-1598
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

32. The saint kneeling and opening his arms to the fish ...
A rarely seen episode from the life of Saint Anthony that occurred
when he went to preach in Rimini on the Adriatic coast.
The populace refused to listen, so he addressed the fishes:
they hold their heads out of the water to better hear his sermon.
Francisco de Herrera the Elder
St. Anthony Preaching to the Fishes
Saint Antoine prêchant aux poissons
1630
Institute of Arts, Detroit

35. In a blaze of golden light, which does not entirely escape the darkness
still partly enveloping the newly created earth God the Father is portrayed
as if suspended in mid-air in the act of creation.
The animals rush forward from behind him
while
the birds shoot across the sky
and
the fishes dart through the water like arrows from his hand.
As a true Venetian, Tintoretto here devotes particular artistic skill
to the fishes, including sturgeon, salmon and red mullet.
(At the upper right corner is the unmistakable head of a white unicorn,
suggesting that Tintoretto also believed that they were real rather than
legendary.)
Tintoretto, le Tintoret
Creation of the Animals
La Création des animaux
1551-52
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

38. St Antony sunk in prayer ...
a rock with an apple and a wooden staff
a river with a small boat
a nude woman,
a head of an old woman, a bawd
a dovecote, which signified a brothel in the 16th century,
a swan on the flag also refer to this house of easy virtue
a monastery is going up in flames with bird-like devils,
an owl, symbol of temptation and seduction
and
a flying fish with a devil on its back
Jheronimus Bosch, Jérôme Bosch, Follower of, Suiveur de
The Temptation of St Anthony
La Tentation de saint Antoine
1550-1600
Noordbrabants Museum, 's-Hertogenbosch. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

41. One day a small child asked him for assistance in crossing the river ...
a landscape charged with evil,
a dragon emerges from a ruin, frightening a man,
a town blazes in the shadowy distance,
a broken jug which houses a devilish tavern,
a naked figure scrambles up a branch
…
Christopher wading through water,
hanging from the saint's staff a fish,
which has signified has signified Christ from early Christian times onward.
Jheronimus Bosch, Jérôme Bosch
Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child
Saint Christophe portant l'Enfant Jésus
1496-1505
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

44. Recapitulating the marine world ...
a collection of crustaceans, snails, shells,
a shark with regular teeth,
a ray,
a pale monkfish
and
pearls that attenuate the gloomy and frightening appearance of this pile of dead fish
Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Water
L'eau
1566
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

46. Europa on the back of the bull, her clothes in disarray,
just off the shore of her homeland ...
a red silk scarf,
putti rides on a dolphin
and
a big scary-looking monster fish in the foreground
Titian, Titien
The Rape of Europa
Le Rapt d'Europe
1560-1562
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

50. It’s white, it’s gooey, with eyes! ...
a ray, gutted and hanging from a hook on the stone wall,
two metal pans, a ceramic jug, a bottle, a knife, some opened oysters
and
a cat that is alive and well
“The beauty of its vast and delicate structure, tinted with red blood, blue
nerves, and white muscles, is like the nave of a polychromatic cathedral,”
Marcel Proust once wrote of the artist’s painting The Ray
Jean Siméon Chardin
La Raie
The ray
1728
Musée du Louvre, Paris

53. Rising from the waves on the back of a great monster-fish ...
Cupids with butterfly wings clothe her in sea foam and crown her with a wreath.
Arnold Böcklin
Venus Anadyomene
Vénus anadyomène
1872
Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis

56. One of the ingenious and most captivating trompe l'oeil …
the back of an old, torn painting,
a log cut for an unseen fireplace,
a plate with a wine bottle
a hungry house cat
and
two smoked herrings hanging from a nail
the composition defies common sense,
and yet Boilly's illusion is so convincing that we hardly think to raise objections
to its casual disregard of logic.
Louis-Léopold Boilly
Un trompe-l’oeil avec un chat et une bûche de bois à travers une toile, poissons suspendus
de la civière
A trompe-l'oeil with a cat and a wooden log through a canvas, fish hanging from the stretcher
1800
Collection privée

59. a Parisian interior,
a table by a window,
a colourless plant, disproportionate to its tiny pot,
Seine at the level of the Cité
and
a jar of goldfish
Henri Matisse
Intérieur, bocal de poissons rouges
Interior with a Goldfish Bowl
1914
Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, Paris

61. Legend has it that the song of Orpheus made fish emerge from the water,
charmed with his melodies ...
The statue in the foreground is identified with the poet Orpheus,
whose figure is associated with its classic iconographic attributes:
the lyre (the shell evokes this lyre) and the fish.
Giorgio De Chirico
Portrait (prémonitoire) de Guillaume Apollinaire
Premonitory portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire
1914
Musée national d'Art moderne, Paris

63. considered a precursor of the surrealist movement ...
a lit candle,
a sword,
a dangerously inclined ladder,
a wooden spoon
a top hat, an overcoat
and
the man's face partially hidden by a huge white fish
Kazimir Malevich
An Englishman in Moscow
Un Anglais à Moscou
1914
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam

66. Gala wakes up when the sound of a bee flying next to the grenade
evokes the image of a bayonet about to injure her.
a bayonet,
spews out two menacing tigers,
that come out of the mouth of a yellow-eyed rockfish,
that jumps from a giant pomegranate
The fish that comes out of the pomegranate is a scorpionfish, a species found
in the Mediterranean, when this fish senses danger approaching, it unfurls
its dorsal fin with venomous spines.
Salvador Dalí
Rêve causé par le vol d'une abeille autour d'une grenade, une seconde avant l'éveil
Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening
1944
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

69. an acrobat on her trapeze,
a bright yellow moon,
a musical cockerel plays the bass drum,
a large green horse, the colour of love for Chagall,
and
a flying fish, a typical Chagallian species, throws a bouquet of floras
from a hand protuberant from its right
Marc Chagall
Le Cirque bleu
'The Blue Circus
1950-1952
Musée Marc-Chagall, Nice

72. o.esqsegues@gmail.com
Fish in Western painting
Poisson dans la peinture occidentale
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