Stone Ready
Lucas Cranach’s Christ and the Adulteress is a formal representation of the scene from John 8 with the various participants tidily lined up as for a graduation photograph. The structural formality belies an extraordinarily rich range of character studies. I am struck by this man, lustfully ready with a hatful of stones to throw at the woman denounced, with a sharp-edged one set in his right hand. He is clearly more than happy to be the first to step forward; he will not have been among the first to go away (8.9). The stupidity of judgemental vengefulness, the deformity wrought by this passion, is written on his features, which stand out in contrast to those of the venerable white-bearded elder at his left elbow whose hand is raised in a gesture of caution. Is there a trace of such violence in my heart? Cranach’s study lends itself as an aid to examination of conscience.
