The Samaritan Woman (사마리아 여인)

 

 

 

(요 4:7)

사마리아 여자 한 사람이 물을 길으러 왔으매 예수께서 물을 좀 달라 하시니

 

 

 

 

 

 

Duccio di Buoninsegna ca. 1255 – 1319

The Samaritan Woman

tempera on panel (43 × 46 cm) — 1308-11

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Duccio di Buoninsegna biography

 

This work is linked to John 4:7

 

This is a panel from the predella of Duccio's famous Maestà. After the masterpiece was taken apart, this panel ended up in Spain.

Jesus is sitting on a well outside the Samarian city of Sichar. The well is known as Jacob's Well, as Jacob himself once used it. Jesus asks the approaching woman for water. She is surprised that he, a Jew, talks to her, a Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans did not get along well. He replies that if only she knew of the water he could give her: living water.

From the right a few of Jesus' followers return from the city, where they had been shopping for supplies.

Further on in the chapter Jesus shows he knows everything about the woman. She then believes he is the Messias, and persuades her fellow citizens to believe so too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Il Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) 1591 – 1666

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

oil on canvas (97 × 125 cm) — c. 1619

  Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Il Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) biography

 

This work is linked to John 4:7

 

At a well that was built by Jacob, Jesus meets a woman from Samaria. He asks her for some water. She is surprised that a Jew talks to her, as Jews and Samaritans did not get along very well.

Jesus starts a conversation and after a while tells her that he is the Messiah. She believes him and convinces her fellow citizens to do so too.

Lovely composition by Guercino: the slightly tilted heads, and the hands that illustrate who's talking and who's listening.