Christ and the woman taken in adultery

Jacopo Negretti was an Italian artist (1548 - 1628), known as Palma Giovane or Il Giovane, to distinguish him from his great uncle, also called Jacopo Palma (il Vecchio, 1478/90 - 1528) and his father Antonio Palma, both painters. He became the leading and most prolific painter and draughtsman in Venice after the death of Jacopo Tintoretto (1518 - 1594), whose style greatly influenced Palma's own work. Palma's vast body of works represents the impact of Tintoretto and central Italian Mannerism on Venetian painting in the generation after Titian, Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese. This print depicts a passage from the New Testament (John 7:53–8:11). Christ is teaching in the Temple when a group bring in a woman accused of adultery, apparently caught in the act. They want to punish her by stoning to which Christ responds 'let he who is without sin cast the first stone'. The accusers leave, realising they are not without sin. Christ tells the woman he doesn't condemn her, saying 'go and sin no more'. Both phrases continue to be used in the English language and the story is the subject of several Renaissance paintings. This print, along with WAG 9179, 9180 and 9182, appeared as one of twenty-six etchings by Palma which were published in 1611 as 'De Excellentia et nobilitate delineationis libri duo' (Principles of Drawing) by Giacomo Franco. It was reprinted in 1636 by Marco Sadeler as 'Regole per imparar a disegnar i corpi humani divise in doi libri delineatri dal Famoso Pittor Giacomo Palma'. Other prints in the books were produced by Jacopo Franco and Luca Ciamberlano after Palma's designs.