The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes

Born at Liège, Lambert Lombard had a great influence on the Antwerp School during the first half of the sixteenth century. His fascination for the culture of classical antiquity – he spent two years in Rome – prompted Frans Floris I and Willem Key to become his pupils. Frans Floris I in particular was to become the figurehead of Renaissance painting in Antwerp. The chief figures in this Bible event stand central in this depiction: Christ blesses the loaves and fishes and to his right are his disciples Peter and Andrew. The composition is built up in orderly fashion, with a high-set foreground and with a horizon line placed too high, indicating that Lombard had not yet mastered the rules of perspective.