Cristo en casa de Marta y María

The gospel story is short. Martha bustles to serve the visiting Christ while her sister Mary simply sits and listens, and when Martha complains, Christ gently tells her that Mary has chosen the better part. Tintoretto painted it in Venice in the 1570s, at a moment when that little scene carried real charge. Across Europe Catholics and Protestants were arguing over whether faith or good works brought salvation, and the contrast between busy Martha and attentive Mary spoke straight to it. A Catholic viewer would read Mary's stillness as the contemplative life the Church prized. The picture was given by the Welser family, Augsburg merchants, for an altar in their city's Dominican church.