Dirck Jacobsz. Vellert was a painter and printmaker active in Antwerp c.1511–c.47. We know that he was a master of the painters’ guild of St Luke and that he took on pupils. Although no paintings have been securely attributed to him, a relatively large number of drawings have (Konowitz 1997). Many of them are designs for stained glass windows—the part of his practice for which he seems to have been most famous. 

One such drawing is Christ Preaching in the Synagogue and the Pharisees Bringing the Woman taken in Adultery. The design would have fitted a roundel, common in contemporary architecture as either a stand-alone window or part of a multi-panelled one.

In the centre left foreground of the drawing, Jesus is shown on a bench in the act of preaching, surrounded by a circle of people seated on the ground. Several other figures are standing further back, observing the scene from afar, engaged in conversation. The architecture, though ostensibly depicting a synagogue, is in fact that of a contemporary church, complete with pier statues under elaborate canopies and a rood screen in the background, crowned by a large scale, enthroned statue.

A group of men and a woman is entering from the right, their movement suggesting that the woman is being pushed forward, possibly against her will. They are bringing her towards Jesus for judgement. This has been interpreted as depicting the Pharisees and the woman taking in adultery (John 8:2–11).

Together, then, the two scenes in this drawing tell a story found in John’s Gospel. Here, however, I have chosen to use their proximity to illustrate Christ’s teaching—and practising—of compassion, as described in Matthew 9:35–38. In the latter passage, we learn that Christ healed ‘every infirmity’ (v.35) of the people that he met. And infirmities may take many forms, moral as well as physical.

References

Konowitz, Ellen. 1997. ‘A “Creation of Eve” by Dirk Vellert’, Master Drawings, 35.1: 54–62