Italian School, Veneto (c. 1550-60)
Christ and the Woman of Samaria (after Michelangelo) c.1550-60
Oil on panel | 70.0 x 57.4 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 402679
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Christ is seated to the right of a square well, which is set on a step below a tree from which hangs a pulley-block. He is gesturing towards the Samaritan woman who approaches from the left with a small bucket and a rope in her right hand.
The painting is copied from a design by Michelangelo, originally produced in the form of a painting for Vittoria Colonna (acknowledged in a letter of hers, 1542 or 1543, and in a sonnet), which is conceivably the very battered panel in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. It is possible that in this case the immediate model was the engraving by Niccolò Beatrizet. The brushwork and the broken colour suggest that the artist was Venetian.Provenance
Bears the red wax seal of the Capel family; one of a group of paintings acquired in 1731 with the lease of Kew House from Lady Elizabeth Capel by Frederick, Prince of Wales; recorded in the Cumberland apartments at St James's Palace in 1819 as Tintoretto (no 1042)
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Creator(s)
Previously attributed to after (artist) -
Medium and techniques
Oil on panel
Measurements
70.0 x 57.4 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
76.9 x 64.9 x 5.0 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
Alternative title(s)
Christ and the Woman of Samaria
Christ at the Well
