Pieter Stalpaert

A document drawn up on the date of his wedding on 26 July 1639 states that Daniël Stalpaert was 24 years old at that time and was also a painter.

The document further states he was then living with his mother and his uncle Abraham de Walperge on the Conninxgrach (now called the Singel).

Landscape paintings in this style usually used the device of a division of nature into two distinct motifs with on one side, for instance, a hill with farms under trees and on the other, a steep valley with a river and a rolling plane.

The palette with its brownish-yellow foliage and greenish-blue hills and the transparent blues in the cloudy skies are typical of Stalpaert's work.

That print depicting The storm on the sea of Galilei was plate 8 in the 12-part Vita, passio et Resvrrectio Iesv Christ which was published by Adriaen Collaert in Antwerp in 1598.

The print also shows the boat in a forward tilting position but its portrait format favours the focus on the main motif, which almost fills the entire space.

As Stalpaert gives ample space to the raging ocean scene, the biblical figures appear to have been reduced to mere staffage.