Christ and the Adulteress

As I’ve mentioned in my comments on “The Temptation of Christ,” this is one of two gospel themes that interest me due to the presence of scriptural debate. As I said there, I was fascinated, at the time, in the admission that the scriptures make to the possibility and even probability of their own misuse. At the time that I made these two paintings we were engaging in a war that some wanted to define in religious terms, and there was a bit of thumping on either Bibles or Korans as justification for either side. The example of this story, in which religious leaders want to stone an adulterous woman, siting the law of Moses, is that the proper use of doctrine is to better yourself, not to justify your hatred of another.

A certain critic used this painting of an example of some dim view that I’m supposed to have of women, but I think that any astute observer would have to agree that that perspective is shortsighted. The woman has guns to her head to relate the danger that she is in. After all, they did want to kill her. In the center a man thumps on a Bible. The woman is the “Mary Magdalene” figure that I’ve used before. In fact, according to Catholic legend the woman caught in adultery was Mary Magdalene. She is here masked, implying her current lack of self identity, and also naked, to relate the situation in which she was discovered.

The figure of Jesus here holds a lantern, and is some form of the “Seth” character that I’ve used elsewhere. A curious detail of the story is that Jesus was said to have been drawing in the ground at the time that the woman was brought to him. The account does not say what he was drawing. Here he has drawn the planetary symbols, or what the ancients knew as the seven heavens. To some extent there is the implication that here is a group of Bible-thumping dumb-dumbs who want to argue written words with a man who comprehends the cosmos. The planetary symbols are in a large circle that Christ has drawn, which also encloses the woman. My own intention was to draw the adulterous woman into relation with the cosmos, which, in gnostic terms, would be considered a common representation. In gnostic literature the human soul lost in the world is depicted as a drunken and unhappy prostitute who does not recognize her worth until the visitation of the Savior. To the gnostic this story would seem an obvious parallel to their view of the process of the lost soul’s redemption. Others might see the circle round her as somewhat of a magic circle intended to protect her from her adversaries.

Stylistically, I’m happy with the lighting in this painting, in which Christ’s lamp illuminates and emphasizes the figure of the woman. I also like the tight and centralized composition of the figures. My habit had become, when using multiple figures, to group them centrally and to allow background all around. I find this a good example of that sort of group composition.

 

Return to "Christ and the Adulterous Woman."

 

(Paintings that feature the Seth character are "Cain, Abel, and Seth," "Conversion of Paul," "Crucifixion," and "Christ and the Adulterous Woman,")

(Paintings that feature the Mary Magdalene character are "Conversion," "The Thunder," "Crucifixion," and "Christ and the Adulterous Woman.")