Samaritan Woman at the Well

SAMARITAN WOMAN AT THE WELL. - The well-known episode from the Gospel of John (4:3-43), which recounts the encounter of Jesus, fatigatus ex itinere, with the Samaritan woman who was drawing water from Jacob's well, could not pass unnoticed by Christian artists because of its messianic significance.

Although it is not one of the widespread subjects, the known representations provide a fixed iconographic type with few variants, with the exception of a single scene (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, pl. 233, 2), in which a third figure, probably Peter, is added to the two traditional figures, in order to express the Apostles' amazement at the unusual encounter, as in the aforementioned Johannine passage. Cemetery painting offers few examples, all between the end of the 2nd century and the 3rd. The Savior, in tunic and pallium — the only exception being in the crypt of the coronation in Praetextatus (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 19), where he wears a scarlet chlamys — stands or sits, with the scroll of the Law or with his hand extended to receive from the woman the bowl of water, or else the woman draws water from the well. The scene of the Samaritan woman was adopted to signify the Revelation of the Messiah, but Wilpert (Pitture, pp. 390-93) discerns in the Praetextatus depiction and in that of cubiculum III of Domitilla an adumbration of the rite of the refrigerium. With a different meaning, perhaps, and without the figure of Jesus Christ, the Samaritan woman was painted in the Christian building at Dura Europos (ca. the middle of the 3rd century), and in this matter Hopkins is to be preferred to Baur, who sees Oriental influences there (cf. Ph. Cl. Hopkins, The Christian chapel at Dura-Europos, in Atti del III Congresso internaz. di archeol. crist., Rome 1934, p. 492, fig. 2; P. V. C. Baur, Les peintures de la chapelle chrétienne de Dura, in Gazette des beaux arts, 75 [1933], pp. 76-78).

More numerous are the approximately 15 examples provided by sarcophagi, almost all from the 4th century. The sculptors, in addition to the two traditional figures, give special prominence to the well. In the reliefs Jesus Christ more decisively assumes the figure of a teacher, through the scroll of the Law that he clasps in his hand or the bundle of volumes near the well. Basilical architecture too has provided two traditional examples, both in S. Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna and in the baptistery of Naples, in which, however, in the former the well is replaced by a stream (cf. C. Ricci, Ravenna, 8th ed., Bergamo n.d., p. 79, fig. 68).

Other scenes of the Samaritan woman are provided by African terracottas (F. Coudray La Blanchère - P. Gauckler, Catalogue du Musée Alaoui, I, Paris 1897, p. 209, pl. 37, 5), by gold and ivory objects, pyxides in Leningrad, La Voulte-Chillac and Cluny (late 5th century - early 6th; cf. G. Rohault de Fleury, La Messe. Etudes archéologiques, V, Paris 1887, pls. 359; 366; 367, 1), and by sacred goldsmithing. Finally, mention is made of the 10th outer panel of the dossal of the ivory chair of Maximian in Ravenna, where there are new elements, such as the cross, the amphora, etc. (cf. C. Cecchelli, La cattedra di Massimiano ed altri avori romano-orientali, Rome 1936, pp. 176-77, pl. 31).

The episode of the Samaritan woman at the well then continues to be represented in medieval and modern art: for example, in the Exultet of Pisa, in the mosaics of Monreale (13th century), in a bas-relief of the Louvre (14th century), in an admirable small panel by Duccio (part of the Maestà, Siena), in a lunette by Giovanni Della Robbia (Florence, Bargello), in paintings by Tintoretto (Florence, Uffizi), by Lav. Fontana (Naples, Pinacoteca), by P. Mignard (Paris, Louvre), etc.

Pasquale Testini