DUCCIO di Buoninsegna
(b. ca. 1255, Siena, d. 1319, Siena)

Christ and the Samaritan Woman (scene 6)

1308-11
Tempera on wood, 44 x 46 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

This panel is on the back predella of the Maestà.

Christ is seated on the edge of a magnificent well made of green marble. The slender, statuesque figure of the Samaritan woman is apparent through the rippling surface of her garment. Once again urban architecture, accurate and regular in its structural lay-out, lends colour to the scene. In Christ and the Samaritan Woman the geometrical compactness of the city of Sichar and the well on which Christ is sitting are in contrast with the slight figure of the woman.