Minneapolis Institute of Art

Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery

Sebastiano Ricci

Date

1720s

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

The Venetian painter Sebastiano Ricci traveled from capital to capital—Rome, Vienna, London—producing vast frescoes for princely patrons. Even in this small-scale work, his celebrated elegance, fluid brushwork, and brilliant coloring are on display. The subject here is biblical. A woman caught in adultery has been brought to Jesus by the Pharisees—the Jewish social and religious authorities in Jerusalem. They ask him whether such a woman should be stoned (the legal punishment), and he responds by writing on the ground and then saying, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7). Italy, Europe

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