Christ at the well

Bonifazio Veronese painted this Christ at the Well around 1530, depicting the Gospel episode in which Christ encountered the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well and revealed his divine identity through his knowledge of her personal history. The episode was important theologically—Christ's willingness to speak with a Samaritan and a woman confounded social conventions, and his offer of 'living water' provided rich material for symbolic interpretation—and was a popular subject in Venetian devotional painting. Bonifazio's treatment reflects his mature Venetian style: rich coloring, confident multi-figure arrangement, and the landscape background that gave his outdoor sacred scenes their distinctive atmospheric depth. The encounter at the well provided opportunity to depict Christ in intimate theological dialogue with an ordinary human being.

The scene is set in a landscape with the well as the focal point of the encounter between Christ and the Samaritan woman. Bonifazio's warm Venetian palette and the pastoral setting create an inviting devotional image.