Christ and the Samaritan Woman

Giulio Campagnola invented stipple engraving, a method of using the point of the burin (a tool with diamond-shaped steel shaft) to make numerous small flecks in the metal plate, creating gradated tones instead of the more common linework. This technique approximated painting’s subtle transitions from light to dark values. This print may be after a composition, now lost, by Giorgione or Titian, both of whom were from Venice where Campagnola worked. It illustrates a story from the Gospel of John when Christ meets a woman by a well and asks her for a drink of water before revealing to her that he is the Messiah.