Christ and the Woman of Samaria

Christ and the Woman of Samaria from 1659 in the Bode Museum depicts the Gospel of John encounter in which Jesus speaks with a Samaritan woman at a well — remarkable both because Jews and Samaritans were considered enemies and because Jewish men did not conventionally speak with unaccompanied women. The story is one of the most theologically rich in the New Testament: the conversation ranges from water and thirst to the nature of true worship, ending with the woman recognizing Jesus as the Messiah and becoming his first female missionary. Rembrandt's 1659 treatment is intimate rather than monumental — a small panel in the Bode Museum rather than a large-scale narrative canvas — and focuses on the psychological moment of recognition rather than the surrounding landscape or architectural setting. The Bode Museum on Berlin's Museum Island, one of the great concentrations of European art in any single city, holds the work in its collection of Dutch and Flemish Baroque painting.

Rembrandt renders the biblical encounter with his late style of broad, rough brushwork and warm golden light, creating an atmosphere of quiet spiritual intimacy between the two figures.