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For many years of his life Agostino Tassi was exiled in Livorno, and, as a further punishment for some unknown crime, he also spent some time on a galley. His firsthand knowledge of the sea, boats, shipyards and fishing is evident in his paintings. He might even have observed coral fishing while living in Tuscany. From at least 1612 he knew and admired Adam Elsheimer's work, but it was only in c. 1620 that he began to be strongly influenced by the German painter. Here the light shining on boats and sails, the radiant glow of fire, the accents of red and the careful reflections in the water are all derived from Elsheimer's example. During his lifetime Tassi was celebrated for his nocturnes. Possibly The Coral Fishers was meant to be a night scene, since the silvery glow that permeates the canvas could be interpreted as moonlight. Stylistically the painting is rather close to the lunettes in Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi, documented in 1623, and to two drawings (Musée du Louvre, Paris), which in the past were attributed to Filippo Napoletano.
In comparison with The Embarkation of a Queen, The Coral Fishers is much more painterly. For instance, both the figures and the boats, which are carefully delineated in the Embarkation, are here rendered with a quick touch of the brush. The device of the screen of trees occupying a large part of the composition was a favourite of Tassi's in the 1620s and 1630s and reappears in the early works of Claude Lorrain.
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