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Christ and the Woman of Samaria
Christ and the Woman of Samaria
Artist	Artemisia Gentileschi
Year	1637
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	267.5 cm × 206 cm (105.3 in × 81 in)
Location	Palazzo Blu, Pisa

Christ and the Woman of Samaria is a 1637 oil painting on canvas by the Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi, depicting a story from the New Testament. It was part of a private collection in Palermo,^[1] and is now in the public Palazzo Blu in Pisa.

Subject matter

The story of the Samaritan woman is told in the Gospel of John. A woman leans eagerly forward in conversation with Jesus, in contrast to the typical portrayal of the time which showed the woman sitting passively listening to a monologue.^[1] It is one of the few works by Gentileschi with a full landscape.^[2] The disciples of Jesus can be seen in the background, walking out of the walled city.^[3] The vibrant colors of the figures' clothes and the detailed landscape became associated with the work she produced during this period in Naples.^[3]

Provenance

Correspondence from Gentileschi indicates that she was trying to sell two paintings to Cardinal Francesco Barberini in 1637, one of which was a Woman of Samaria.^[4] This work was recently discovered in a private collection and identified at that painting.^[4] The work apparently never reached Barberini and its history is otherwise undocumented.^[1] It was acquired by the Palazzo Blu museum in Pisa in November 2022.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Spear 2011, p. 805.
^ Locker 2015, p. 89.
^ ^a ^b Locker, Jesse. "Artemisia Gentileschi: What Wasn't in the London Exhibition and Why it Matters". Art Herstory. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
^ ^a ^b Spear 2011, p. 804.
^ "Pisa, Palazzo Blu acquires important work by Artemisia Gentileschi". Finestre sull'Arte. Retrieved 22 March 2023.

Sources

Locker, Jesse (2015). Artemisia Gentileschi : the Language of Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300185119.
Spear, Richard E. (2011). "Artemisia Gentileschi's 'Christ and the woman of Samaria'". The Burlington Magazine. 153 (1305): 804–805. ISSN 0007-6287.