Dynamic of Encounter: the Samaritan Woman at the Well

Abstract

The image in the cards handed around illustrates a painting titled De Profundis (from the depths) that I began working on in 2018 but only completed last summer when back at Glenstal Abbey in Ireland. The painting itself is composed of two canvases, a diptych that in total measures 8’ x 6’ and is now on display in the church there. It refers to the story of the Samaritan Woman at the Well, recounted in the Gospel of John (Jn 4:1–42). A depiction of this gospel story could, until recently, be found among the earliest identifiable Christian images that date back to the third century in Syria, on the walls of a Christian Baptistry in Dura Europos.1 By depicting the figure of Christ dressed in a loose garment that resembles a Roman toga, De Profundis implicitly references that third century image as a means of emphasising the role that religious imagery based on this story has in relation to Christian initiation.