Christ and the Fishermen, or Christ calling Peter, Andrew and James. French School, about 1720. Red chalk on grey paper.
The lines drawn on this sketch meet on the face of the kneeling man in the centre.
The main focus in the drawing is this kneeling man, one of the fishermen who were called by Jesus to be his apostles.
- How do we know they are fishermen?
The lines are there to help the artist construct his picture but will not appear as lines in a final painting. They are perspective lines, drawn to pinpoint the central focus and help position other figures.
The artist is analysing how we will look at his picture and considering how to lead our eyes from one thing to the next.
- What are our eyes led down to?
- Why might the artist have made Jesus appear secondary (not the most important feature) in this composition?
