Christ and the Good Samaritan (Christ by the well)

In this picture, which was part of a student work representing the parable of the Good Samaritan who met Christ by the well, Joana Karpińska (1902–1999), a student in the Department of Art at Stephen Batory University in Vilnius, gave both characters some local features. She dressed Christ in the shirt of a Byelorussian peasant from the Vilnius region, and portrayed the Good Samaritan as a resident of interwar Vilnius, wearing a fashionable knee-length skirt and a knitted short-sleeved blouse. Karpińska attempted to offer a modern vision of the biblical story as an allegory for kindness and grace. Its reproduction in the University publication Alma Mater Vilnensis (1930, No. 9) indicates how highly this student work was regarded.

Text author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

The Polish artist Joanna Karpińska (1902–1999) studied painting under Ludomir Sleńdziński at Stephen Bathory University in Vilnius between 1929 and 1934. She made several Expressionist woodcuts early in her career, in which national and ethnographic motifs prevailed. She also produced illustrations of religious themes, in which she used folk and ethnographic details to present her life. The biblical story portrayed in the woodcut Christ and the Samaritan woman ( Jn 4) is presented like an everyday urban scene. A barefoot Christ dressed in a Russian or Belarussian peasant’s shirt and trousers, whose divinity is shown by a halo, is sitting in front of some tall buildings, not beside a well, but by a massive hydrant. The Samaritan woman is portrayed as a city dweller from the first half of the 20th century: a strong, confident young woman, with an elaborate hairdo, in a short skirt and a skimpy blouse. The story from the Scriptures presenting the idea of Redemption and a love of outcasts is transferred to a setting that is familiar to the artist and the viewer. The details of everyday life emphasised in the composition actualise the Evangelical idea of love for one’s neighbour, and adapt it boldly to the daily routine of 20th-century Vilnius.

Text author Dalia Vasiliūnienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album MORE THAN JUST BEAUTY (2012). Compiler and author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, HEAVEN AND BEYOND (2016). Compiler Dalia Vasiliūnienė. Text authors Dalia Vasiliūnienė, Skaidrė Urbonienė
Expositions: “More Than Just Beauty: The Image of Woman in the LAWIN collection”, 12 October – 11 November 2012, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius. Curator - Giedrė Jankevičiūtė. "Women Artists in Interwar Vilnius. Between Expectations and Possibilities", 15 December 2021 – 24 April 2022, Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum, Vilnius. Curators Algė Andriulytė and Ilona Mažeikienė.

In this picture, which was part of a student work representing the parable of the Good Samaritan who met Christ by the well, Joana Karpińska (1902–1999), a student in the Department of Art at Stephen Batory University in Vilnius, gave both characters some local features. She dressed Christ in the shirt of a Byelorussian peasant from the Vilnius region, and portrayed the Good Samaritan as a resident of interwar Vilnius, wearing a fashionable knee-length skirt and a knitted short-sleeved blouse. Karpińska attempted to offer a modern vision of the biblical story as an allegory for kindness and grace. Its reproduction in the University publication Alma Mater Vilnensis (1930, No. 9) indicates how highly this student work was regarded.

Text author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

The Polish artist Joanna Karpińska (1902–1999) studied painting under Ludomir Sleńdziński at Stephen Bathory University in Vilnius between 1929 and 1934. She made several Expressionist woodcuts early in her career, in which national and ethnographic motifs prevailed. She also produced illustrations of religious themes, in which she used folk and ethnographic details to present her life. The biblical story portrayed in the woodcut Christ and the Samaritan woman ( Jn 4) is presented like an everyday urban scene. A barefoot Christ dressed in a Russian or Belarussian peasant’s shirt and trousers, whose divinity is shown by a halo, is sitting in front of some tall buildings, not beside a well, but by a massive hydrant. The Samaritan woman is portrayed as a city dweller from the first half of the 20th century: a strong, confident young woman, with an elaborate hairdo, in a short skirt and a skimpy blouse. The story from the Scriptures presenting the idea of Redemption and a love of outcasts is transferred to a setting that is familiar to the artist and the viewer. The details of everyday life emphasised in the composition actualise the Evangelical idea of love for one’s neighbour, and adapt it boldly to the daily routine of 20th-century Vilnius.

Text author Dalia Vasiliūnienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album MORE THAN JUST BEAUTY (2012). Compiler and author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, HEAVEN AND BEYOND (2016). Compiler Dalia Vasiliūnienė. Text authors Dalia Vasiliūnienė, Skaidrė Urbonienė
Expositions: “More Than Just Beauty: The Image of Woman in the LAWIN collection”, 12 October – 11 November 2012, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius. Curator - Giedrė Jankevičiūtė. "Women Artists in Interwar Vilnius. Between Expectations and Possibilities", 15 December 2021 – 24 April 2022, Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum, Vilnius. Curators Algė Andriulytė and Ilona Mažeikienė.