Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery (c. 1535 or later): Art, History and Details

Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery (c. 1535 or later) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Valerio Belli (Italian, c. 1468–1546).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In the Gospel of John, a group of scribes and Pharisees, following the law of the Ten Commandments, intends to stone a woman who has committed adultery. The group first asks Christ's opinion of their actions, hoping to accuse him of heresy, but Christ ignores them by writing on the ground. When they persist Christ tells them, "He who is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." First and foremost a gem and rock crystal engraver, Belli's plaquettes are often casts made from designs he had already made in rock crystal. This work was cast after one of 24 carved rock crystal scenes from the life of Christ that adorned a silver gilt casket Belli created for Pope Clement VII in 1532. The keyhole cut into this plaquette was added later.

Object facts

• Title: Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery
• Date: c. 1535 or later
• Creator attribution: Valerio Belli (Italian, c. 1468–1546)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: gilt bronze (later perforated with a keyhole)
• Dimensions: Overall: 6 x 7.5 cm (2 3/8 x 2 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1968.27

Collection credit

Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Annual Report for 1968.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 56, no. 6 (June 1969): 209–248.
• Winter, Patrick M. de. “Recent Accessions of Italian Renaissance Decorative Arts, Part II.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 4 (April 1986): 142–182.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.