Navicella mosaic (copy)

GIOTTO di Bondone (b. 1267, Vespignano, d. 1337, Firenze) Navicella 1305-13
Oil on canvas, 740 x 990 cm
Fabbrica di San Pietro, Rome

The Navicella, for which Stefaneschi composed a verse caption, must have aroused enormous fascination among contemporaries immediately after it was completed as several replicas are known.

Prior to the mosaic was finally installed inside the church in 1628, Francesco Berretta was commissioned to make an exact copy in paint, shown in this reproduction. The mosaic measured approximately 13,5 x 9,5 m, and depicted on its uninterrupted surface St. Peter walking on the waters. When Francesco Berretta made the copy on canvas of Giotto’s mosaic in 1628 the framework, the figure of Peter and large parts from around the edges had already been lost. However, we can still make out the monumental composition of the mosaic – the great ship, in which Peter’s companions, full of fear, watch the events on the water.