Art Institute of Chicago

Christ and the Samaritan Woman

Giulio Campagnola

Date

c. 1510

Medium

Engraving in black on ivory laid paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This print depicts Jesus traveling through the ancient region of Samaria, where he stopped at a well and asked a local woman for a drink of water. The woman recognized Jesus as a prophet and summoned the villagers to listen to what he had to say. Here, Giulio Campagnola set the encounter outside a lagoon city that strongly resembles Venice, depicting the woman in contemporary 16th-century dress. Campagnola devised an innovative way of engraving with minute dots that enabled soft tonal transitions, while his unusual choice to crop the figure of Jesus speaks to his bold approach to composition.

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