Completed between 1654 and 1656, Christ in the House of Martha and Mary is a remarkable early work by Johannes Vermeer, executed in oil on canvas and measuring 158.5 by 141.5 centimeters. Now held by the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, this is Vermeer’s largest known painting and one of the few in his oeuvre to take on a biblical subject. Created shortly after his marriage to Catherina Bolnes and his conversion to Catholicism, the work reflects both personal and theological tensions that resonated in the artist’s life and in the religiously divided Dutch Republic.
