Christ and the Woman of Samaria (Gentileschi)

Christ and the Woman of Samaria
Artist	Artemisia Gentileschi
Year	1637
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	267.5 cm × 206 cm (105.3 in × 81 in)
Location	Palazzo Blu, Pisa

Christ and the Woman of Samaria is a 1637 oil painting on canvas by the Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi, depicting a story from the New Testament. It was part of a private collection in Palermo,^[1] and is now in the public Palazzo Blu in Pisa.

The story of the Samaritan woman is told in the Gospel of John. A woman leans eagerly forward in conversation with Jesus, in contrast to the typical portrayal of the time which showed the woman sitting passively listening to a monologue.^[1] It is one of the few works by Gentileschi with a full landscape.^[2] The disciples of Jesus can be seen in the background, walking out of the walled city.^[3] The vibrant colors of the figures' clothes and the detailed landscape became associated with the work she produced during this period in Naples.^[3]

Correspondence from Gentileschi indicates that she was trying to sell two paintings to Cardinal Francesco Barberini in 1637, one of which was a Woman of Samaria.^[4] This work was recently discovered in a private collection and identified at that painting.^[4] The work apparently never reached Barberini and its history is otherwise undocumented.^[1] It was acquired by the Palazzo Blu museum in Pisa in November 2022.^[5]

• List of works by Artemisia Gentileschi

• Locker, Jesse (2015). Artemisia Gentileschi : the Language of Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300185119.
• Spear, Richard E. (2011). "Artemisia Gentileschi's 'Christ and the woman of Samaria'". The Burlington Magazine. 153 (1305): 804–805. ISSN 0007-6287.