The Cloisters St. Andrew Altarpiece: Detail, the calling of Andrew
1420-30
The Cloisters, New York City
Jesus' call to Peter and Andrew is recounted in Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20, but this image follows the slightly different and more detailed account in Luke 5:1-11. It begins when Jesus sees four fishermen washing their nets. He goes into the boat owned by Peter and Andrew (the latter not actually named in Luke) so that he can preach to the crowd assembled on the shore. Our image shows him in the boat with the two disciples-to-be but does not picture the crowd. After preaching, Jesus tells the two to go into deep water and lower their nets. In the image it is Peter who takes the boat out to the deep and Andrew who casts the net, which fills with fish. There are so many fish to deal with that the two other fishermen, James and John, come over to help. We see them in the lower right, rowing toward Peter and Andrew's boat.
Fish, snakes, and a squid swim in the water around the boat. A further snake makes its way to the water from one of the simple huts of the fishermen. Outside the huts are some jugs and an outsize mortar and pestle. It is not clear what these have to do with the gospel narrative.
This is one of a pair of panels in the altarpiece that flank the upper part of the portrait of St. Andrew. The corresponding panel illustrates the saint's martyrdom.
View the entire altarpiece.
Read more about images of St. Andrew.
Photographed at the Cloisters by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.