Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery (Ms. 25, fol. 8, from the La Passion de nostre seigneur ihesus christ)

Master of Guillaume Lambert · about 1480–1490
Getty Center, Los Angeles

From a French book of the Passion of Christ, written and painted in Lyon about 1480–1490 and credited to the Master of Guillaume Lambert and his workshop. The painter used gold and silver paint as well as colours, and the picture sits above the French text it illustrates.

Jesus, in a gold mantle over blue, stands with his disciples in a long hall of columns. A young woman in a gold dress stands before him with lowered eyes; at the right, men in turbans point at her.

From the text

The scribes and Pharisees bring a woman and make her stand before them (John 8:3)

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone” (John 8:7)

The artist’s own

A stone hall with a tiled floor and a wooden ceiling

The accusers in turbans and tall hats

Details

Jesus

He stands in a gold mantle and gestures.

The woman

In a gold dress, she looks down.

The accusers

Men at the right point at her.

Disciples

Men with halos stand behind Jesus.

Master of Guillaume Lambert and workshop (French, active about 1475–1485). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ms. 25 (86.MN.730), fol. 8) · Tempera colors, gold and silver paints, silver leaf, and black ink · Images provided here are believed to be in the public domain and are available under CC0 through Getty’s Open Content Program. (Getty record: "No Copyright", http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

The verses

John 8:2–11Early in the morning He went back into the temple courts. All the people came to Him, and He sat down to teach them. The scribes and Pharisees, however, brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before them and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do You say?” They said this to test Him, in order to have a basis for accusing Him. But Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with His finger. When they continued to question Him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.” And again He bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard this, they began to go away one by one, beginning with the older ones, until only Jesus was left, with the woman standing there. Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Now go and sin no more.”