Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery

By packing people together against a flat black backdrop, this painting makes its message of divine forgiveness as direct as possible. The scene depicts the story’s climax, when Christ defends an adulteress before an angry mob that wants to stone her to death for her sins. Christ deflates the mob with his compassionate, clever response: “Let any of you who is without sin cast the first stone.” To ensure viewers got the moral punch line, the artist inscribed it in German at the painting’s upper edge.

71.484