The Sunday services in the period between Easter and Pentecost celebrate the Resurrection of Christ and his teachings. On the fifth Sunday, Christians remember the meeting between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. This scene is depicted in this icon which is indicated by the inscription at the top of the background, “(Fifth) Sunday of the Samaritan Woman”.
When the Savior and his disciples were returning from Judea to Galilee, they traveled through Samaria, a historic region of Israel, near a city called Sychar. When his disciples went to buy food, Jesus stopped to rest in an area to the south of the city and sat down by a well. A woman came to the well and Christ asked her to give him a drink. The woman was confused by his request, because Jews did not “associate” with the Samaritans who had originated from a mixture of the Jews and Canaanites. In his reply to the Samaritan woman, Jesus resorted to an allegory about living water associated with eternal life. Having realized that she was not talking to an ordinary person, the woman asked him whose worshipping was more welcomed by God: that of the Jews in Jerusalem or the Samaritans on the Mount Gerizim. In response, Jesus augured the true worshipping of God the Father “in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him” (John 4:21–23). When the woman said that she was waiting for Messiah who “will tell us all things”, Jesus identified himself, saying, “I that speak unto thee am he.” Having drunk the water of the Wisdom of God, the Samaritan woman adopted Christianity, and other citizens followed her example.
The icon painter depicted the scene from the Gospels, enriching its details with symbolic value. The tall well in the center represents the source of living water, while the seven stones around it are the seven sacraments of the Christian Church. Jesus and the woman are depicted talking to each other at the opposite sides of the well.
The composition is static which is in line with the unhurried narration of the story. At the top, it is counterbalanced by a group of apostles behind Christ and the walls of the city behind the woman. In front, the image is complemented by a gold pitcher in front of Jesus and an empty pail in the hands of the woman.
The palette combines green — the color of renewal, white — the color of purity, and red — the color of life-giving energy. Moreover, the woman’s red clothes refer to her future heroic deeds: baptized as Photini, later, she suffered many tortures for her faith. In this icon, the faces are painted with hues of pink. The icon came from the Tolga Convent.
When the Savior and his disciples were returning from Judea to Galilee, they traveled through Samaria, a historic region of Israel, near a city called Sychar. When his disciples went to buy food, Jesus stopped to rest in an area to the south of the city and sat down by a well. A woman came to the well and Christ asked her to give him a drink. The woman was confused by his request, because Jews did not “associate” with the Samaritans who had originated from a mixture of the Jews and Canaanites. In his reply to the Samaritan woman, Jesus resorted to an allegory about living water associated with eternal life. Having realized that she was not talking to an ordinary person, the woman asked him whose worshipping was more welcomed by God: that of the Jews in Jerusalem or the Samaritans on the Mount Gerizim. In response, Jesus augured the true worshipping of God the Father “in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him” (John 4:21–23). When the woman said that she was waiting for Messiah who “will tell us all things”, Jesus identified himself, saying, “I that speak unto thee am he.” Having drunk the water of the Wisdom of God, the Samaritan woman adopted Christianity, and other citizens followed her example.
The icon painter depicted the scene from the Gospels, enriching its details with symbolic value. The tall well in the center represents the source of living water, while the seven stones around it are the seven sacraments of the Christian Church. Jesus and the woman are depicted talking to each other at the opposite sides of the well.
The composition is static which is in line with the unhurried narration of the story. At the top, it is counterbalanced by a group of apostles behind Christ and the walls of the city behind the woman. In front, the image is complemented by a gold pitcher in front of Jesus and an empty pail in the hands of the woman.
The palette combines green — the color of renewal, white — the color of purity, and red — the color of life-giving energy. Moreover, the woman’s red clothes refer to her future heroic deeds: baptized as Photini, later, she suffered many tortures for her faith. In this icon, the faces are painted with hues of pink. The icon came from the Tolga Convent.
