Jesus writes on the ground (folio 130 verso), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier
Unknown Artist
1602–4
Medium
Gum tempera, ink, color, and gold on paper
Dimensions
image: 21 × 11.4 cm · sheet: 26.3 × 15.5 cm
Classification
Manuscript
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
2005.145.130.b
About this artwork
As Jesus was debating with the scribes and Pharisees in Jerusalem, they brought before him an adulterous woman. Hoping to incite him to violence, they declared that if Jesus followed the law of Moses, he should order her to be stoned to death. Jesus responded, “Let whichever of you is without sin cast the first stone.” Then he began to write with his finger on the ground, and each of the men saw a description of his own sins. The two men in the bottom corner of the painting clutch stones with ex...