If it's a yoke then I would say the drawing is almost certainly allegorical, given the strong symbolic connotations of the object. If this man put a yoke on the sea, it means he "tamed" it or enslaved it, put it in servitude.
The Bible alone is full of examples of expressions about yokes. "To put the yoke upon...", "to break one's yoke", "to be under the yoke of...";
If it's a yoke, then it is a broken one, so maybe the association is liberation. This might then explain the man's face, he is at peace because his yoke was torn off.
The Bible alone is full of examples of expressions about yokes. "To put the yoke upon...", "to break one's yoke", "to be under the yoke of...";
If it's a yoke, then it is a broken one, so maybe the association is liberation. This might then explain the man's face, he is at peace because his yoke was torn off.