Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery

In the Gospel of John the scribes and Pharisees bring Jesus a woman caught in adultery and remind him that the law of Moses says she should be stoned. He bends down and writes on the ground with his finger, then tells them that whoever is without sin may throw the first stone. One by one they leave, the eldest first.

Giandomenico Tiepolo keeps Christ low on the left, leaning towards the paving. The woman in white is pushed forward by armed men with spears and halberds, and among the bearded elders opposite, one already lifts a hand to his face.

This canvas and its pendant, the Healing at the Pool of Bethesda, have travelled together for at least 170 years. In 1856 both were in the Palazzo Valier in Venice, in the collection of Valentino Benfatto, under the name of Giandomenico's more famous father, Giambattista. They probably passed in 1865 to the Count of Chambord, the exiled Bourbon claimant to the French throne, and were sold as a pair in Paris in 1937. Hélène and Victor Lyon owned them before 1940, and in 1961 Victor gave them to the Louvre with the right to keep them for life. They arrived in 1977 and hang in the room named after the couple's gift.