Christ and the Samaritan Woman

Artemisia Gentileschi painted Christ and the Samaritan Woman around 1637, depicting the Gospel encounter at Jacob's Well in which Christ reveals himself to a Samaritan woman, telling her his identity before his disciples return. The subject — an extended, philosophically rich conversation between a man and a woman — was unusual in Artemisia's output of dramatic action subjects and allowed her to explore a different mode of sacred narrative: intimate, conversational, and sustained across the figure of the kneeling or seated woman receiving revelation. Her Neapolitan period, from 1630 onward, shows an increasing willingness to extend her range beyond the dramatic subjects she was primarily associated with.

The two figures at the well are rendered with Artemisia's mature technique of warm, natural lighting and solid figural modeling, the landscape setting adding depth to the intimate biblical encounter.