1549 (ca.), Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti) and workshop, Christ and the Adulteress -- Palazzo Barberini (Rome)
From the museum label: The painting depicts the last lines in the well-known episode from the Gospel of John. Jesus has just pronounced his famous words: "He who is without sin cast the first stone" (John 8:7), causing the priests and soldiers who had brought the adulteress before him in order to test him to disperse, walking away confused and hastily leaving the scene. The woman remains there with Jesus and lifts up her hands, now freed, just as she has been freed from the restrictions imposed by her sin.
The action is arranged in two juxtaposed areas: in the foreground, there is the Christological dialogue; in the background, the labyrinth-like jungle of columns vanishing in vertiginous perspective, the image of the temple and symbol of the narrow-minded legalism of the Pharisees, which Tintoretto contrasts with the open space of grace.
1549 (ca.), Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti) and workshop, Christ and the Adulteress -- Palazzo Barberini (Rome)
From the museum label: The painting depicts the last lines in the well-known episode from the Gospel of John. Jesus has just pronounced his famous words: "He who is without sin cast the first stone" (John 8:7), causing the priests and soldiers who had brought the adulteress before him in order to test him to disperse, walking away confused and hastily leaving the scene. The woman remains there with Jesus and lifts up her hands, now freed, just as she has been freed from the restrictions imposed by her sin.
The action is arranged in two juxtaposed areas: in the foreground, there is the Christological dialogue; in the background, the labyrinth-like jungle of columns vanishing in vertiginous perspective, the image of the temple and symbol of the narrow-minded legalism of the Pharisees, which Tintoretto contrasts with the open space of grace.