The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 23, 2024

Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery

Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery

mid 1700s

follower of Sebastiano Ricci

(Italian, 1659–1734)
Framed: 54.6 x 64.8 x 8.9 cm (21 1/2 x 25 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.); Unframed: 34.6 x 43.5 cm (13 5/8 x 17 1/8 in.)
Location: not on view

Description

The subject originates in the Gospel of John 7:53-8:11, where Pharisees bring a woman accused of adultery to Christ, attempting to trick him into disobeying the Old Testament precept that she be stoned. In response, Christ interrupted his writing on the ground, stating: "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." The Pharisees, unable to retort, gradually disperse, and Christ eventually sends the woman away with an admonition not to sin again. The subject was popular in 18th-century Venice, partly because magnanimity was an important value, celebrated in visual, musical, and literary culture. The showy, exotic subject and the public presentation of an openly sexualized woman also enjoyed popularity in 18th-century Venetian painting. This work is a copy of the picture at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, perhaps by a student (and certainly not by Ricci himself)
  • Miner K. Kellogg
    Mrs. Liberty E. Holden, Cleveland
    1916
    Holden Collection
    Miner K. Kellogg; Mrs. Liberty E. Holden, Cleveland. Holden Collection, 1916.
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 476; Mentioned: p. 477
    Rubinstein-Bloch, Stella. Catalogue of a Collection of Paintings, Etc. Presented by Mrs. Liberty E. Holden to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1917. Mentioned: p. 37, cat. no. 41 archive.org
  • Cleveland, 1894: "Cleveland Art Loan Exhibition," Held in the Hickox Building, cat. no. 12.
    The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).
    Inaugural Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 6-September 20, 1916).
  • {{cite web|title=Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery|url=false|author=Sebastiano Ricci|year=mid 1700s|access-date=23 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1916.785