Joan Maria Carbonell

JOAN MARIA CARBONELL (Catalonia, 20th century).
"The Samaritan woman".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Needs cleaning.
The frame is damaged.
Measurements: 63 x 49 cm; 79 x 64 cm (frame).

Due to the iconographic characteristics of the bidding work, the theme can be identified as "Jesus and the Samaritan woman" or "The Samaritan woman at the well" or "Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well of Sychar". Such a scene is related in the Bible by St. John (4: 4-26). "There came a woman of Samaria to draw water: and Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink. For his disciples had gone into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, 'How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, to drink? For Jews and Samaritans do not treat one another. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou the living water? art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us this well, and drank thereof himself, and his sons, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. And the woman said unto him, Lord, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw water".
The representation of this story has a long tradition because of the allusions in the text to water as "Divine Grace" or "Living Water" and because of the veiled allusion made to the preaching and evangelization in it. Thus, we have it in paleochristian sarcophagi ("Sarcophagus of the Trees", Louvre Museum), in Mount Athos, in the work of Duccio, etc.