The Chirk Cabinet: Christ and the Woman of Samaria
studio of Frans Francken II (Antwerp 1581 - Antwerp 1642)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1640 - circa 1650
Materials
Oil on copper
Measurements
80 x 210 mm
Place of origin
Flanders (Belgium from 1830)
Order this imageCollection
Chirk Castle, Wrexham
NT 1170769.7
Caption
The scene is taken from the biblical Gospel according to John (4:1-30). The woman from Samaria, a town whose inhabitants the Jews considered outcasts, was the first person to whom Christ revealed himself as the Messiah, thus demonstrating that his mission of love and forgiveness was to all humanity. The Samarian woman has drawn water from Jacob’s Well and encounters Christ who has paused at midday on his way from Judaea to Galilee and asked her for a drink. As an adulteress, with five husbands and living with another man and ostracised by her own people, she was astonished but Christ said: "Everyone who drinks the water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I shall give him will never suffer thirst anymore."
Summary
Oil painting on copper, The Chirk Cabinet: Christ and the Woman of Samaria, studio of Frans Francken II (Antwerp 1581 - Antwerp 1642), circa 1640-50. One of ten scenes on the outward side of the front drop down flap. Christ sits at a well on the left and is approached by a woman with a jug. He points his left finger at her. Two priest-like figures pass by an arched stone gateway, in the distance, on the right.
Provenance
Traditionally said to have been given by Charles II to Sir Thomas II Myddelton (1586 - 1666) in 1661 in thanks for his role in the restoration of the monarchy, and thence by descent; purchased by the National Trust from Captain David Myddelton, 1993, with the help of grants of £100,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, of £50,000 from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and of £35,000 from the Art Fund (then called the National Art Collections Fund).
Credit line
Chirk Castle, The Myddelton Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
studio of Frans Francken II (Antwerp 1581 - Antwerp 1642) , artist Flemish School, artist
References
Jervis, 1993: Simon Jervis, Cabinets in Britain, Grosvenor House Antiques Fair Handbook, London, 1993, pp.26-27.