The Banquet in the House of Simon the Pharisee (1738): Art, History and Details

The Banquet in the House of Simon the Pharisee (1738) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Pierre Subleyras (1699–1749).

The work and its context

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

Subleyras based this etching on his own painting of the same subject, commissioned by the Order of Saint John Lateran for the dining room of their monastery in Asti, Italy. The lively banquet scene includes an episode from the Gospel of Luke in which Simon the Pharisee, a Jewish religious leader, invites Christ to have dinner with him. During the meal, a notoriously sinful woman enters the feast, washes Christ’s feet with her tears, and dries them with her hair. Subleyras placed Christ and the woman at the far right end of the table, where Simon leans over them, wondering why Christ would let a sinful woman touch him.

Object facts

• Title: The Banquet in the House of Simon the Pharisee
• Date: 1738
• Creator attribution: Pierre Subleyras (1699–1749)
• Type: Print
• Technique: Etching
• Dimensions: Platemark: 24.9 x 60.3 cm (9 13/16 x 23 3/4 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2016.47

Collection credit

Gift of Susan Schulman Printseller LLC and Carolyn Bullard Fine Prints and Drawings, LLC in honor of Jane Glaubinger upon her retirement

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.