The storyline of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman is one of the most common in the early Christian fine art. It is first accounted in the Gospel of John.
Jesus and his disciples were going through Samaria. Tired out by his journey, Jesus sat by Jacob’s well. A Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink', you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” The Samaritan woman recognised Jesus as Messiah and went away into the city to tell about him.
The etching Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well was created in the 17th century. Art experts have not established the authorship yet. Pier Francesco Mola or Giovanni Francesco are believed to have been the authors of the etching.

Pier Francesco Mola was a painter, drawer and engraver. He was born in Coldrerio, Switzerland in 1612. Four years later he moved to Rome with his father. Pier apprenticed painting with Giuseppe Cesari also called Cavaliere d’Arpino who was a Mannerist painter, master of frescos and a great follower of Raphael and Michelangelo. But it was landscape painting that aroused Pier’s interest from the very beginning of his career. His style was shaped in Bologna where he spent two years in the studio of Francesco Albani who was one of the first Italian landscapists.
Mola painted frescos, altars, portraits as well as pictures devoted to religion, mythology and allegory. Mola’s best piece is Joseph Making Himself Known to His Brethren in the gallery of Alexander VI on the Quirinal Hill, the highest in Rome.

Artists printed prints from two or three boards — contour drawing was engraved on one board and parts designed for tone spots were engraved on others. The technique allowed to combine colours or create gradations of the same tint.

Francesco is the second artist who the etching is ascribed to. Very little is known about him. Since he had several signatures (Juvants, Giovani, Giovanni, Iuveni, Giovane) his authorship cannot be established precisely (e.g. Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well). His works are often ascribed to Pier Francesco Mola.