Extensive Coastal Landscape with the Calling of St Peter (detail)

In the foreground on the edge of Lake Galilee, Christ appears to his disciples for the third time following his resurrection. St Peter is seen trying to reach Him across the waves.

The remarkable eagle-shaped overhang in the rocks may be intended as a symbol of the Evangelist and thus refers to de Bles’s biblical source. Upon it may be spied a small owl sitting in a cleft, a pun on the painter’s nickname (civetta in Italian) and his frequent form of signature.