File:A Fresh Breeze in the Mediterranean RMG BHC0882.tiff

Several ships have been depicted sailing through a squall. In the foreground, to the right, a lateen-rigged Mediterranean vessel forges into the picture plane on a wind blowing abeam from left to right. It appears to be flying an Algerine flag. Surprisingly, in that case, this craft bears a prominent image of Saint Peter on the stern. This may indicate that it was a captured vessel. Figures can be seen leaning over the side. On the left a ship bears the tricolour flag of the Netherlands at the main. While the ship on the right, depicted broadside, flies a red flag with indistinct markings but possibly an English red ensign from the stern and main. Other shipping, including smaller coastal craft, can be seen in the background. Colossal, blue-toned mountains are shown in the background, on the left, and a walled fortification stands on an outcrop. These mountains are unmistakably Italian and reminiscent of the Ligurian coast. Although the subject of this work cannot be identified precisely.

The clouds add dramatic effect to the scene. They are shown sometimes low over the land and are, at other times, absent revealing blue sky. The cloudy sky opens up to allow a dart of light to bear down onto the central ship and the surrounding water, while the sea’s unyielding force is heightened by the acute diagonal slant of the clouds above. The sharply heeling mass of the main vessel similarly enhances the powerfully orthogonal composition of the painting. On the far left the effect is sensationalized by the vivid red and orange of the sky which is viewed through driving rain at the centre of the squall.

Even though, this painting depicts the Mediterranean, Mulier makes use of some characteristically Dutch visual motifs. These include the fortress on a rocky headland, on the left, signifying salvation (BHC0822 and BHC0819) as well as the floating spar, in the right foreground, which is a visual conceit synonymous with the work of Bonaventura Peeters (BHC0760) and Jan Porcellis (BHC0722). However Tempesta eschewed the conventional muted grey tones of traditional Dutch seascapes, preferring to portray the sea and sky as flamboyant, and employing a range of pale blues, greys and pinks. Mulier’s depiction of a seaway, in its painterly treatment of sky and sea, though not in colour, broadly compares with the work of Blanckerhoff (BHC0921). Blanckerhoff made three known trips to Rome at approximately the same time that Mulier resided there and it is highly likely that they were familiar with the work of one another.

In terms of depicting high drama and intense colour, this painting has much in common with the work of Mulier’s Italian contemporaries such as Salvator Rosa (1615–73). Rosa’s influence had been steadily absorbed into Mulier’s work from the mid-1650s. In this composition the vitality and brilliance of colour strongly anticipate the lively portrayals of land and sea in eighteenth-century Italy. The unusually long, narrow format of the canvas, which amplifies the composition’s bombast, is probably indicative of the maturity of the artist. However it may, also, hint that the picture’s original function was an ‘over-door’ painting. Roethlisberger-Bianco describes the painting as a ‘late work’. Although, the majority of Mulier’s later works are signed and dated, here, the presence of the image of St Peter on an Algerine vessel and the distinctive tempest might be a 'signature' reference to the artist himself.

Pieter Mulier, the Younger’s vision of the sea was influenced largely by the Mediterranean landscape. He left Haarlem for Rome in 1656. In Italy he was known as Cavalier Pietro Tempesta. Moreover most of his work is concerned with the representation of landscape within an Italian, not a Dutch, frame of reference. The artist lived in Italy from 1684 until his death. He has applied the knowledge and experience gained there to create a realistic depiction of weather conditions and its effects on shipping, together with a detailed account of shipping in a Mediterranean setting.