Storytelling in Miniature

Heinrich Aldegrever
German, 1502–about 1561

Good Samaritan

Engraving, 1554
3 1/8 x 4 5/16 in.
Gift of Carl B. Spitzer, 1938.48

The parable of the Good Samaritan appears in the New Testament in Luke 10:25–27. In the story a Jewish traveler is attacked and robbed while on a road between Jerusalem and Jericho. He is wounded and stripped of his possessions and left at the side of the road. A priest and a Levite pass by the victim, but the Good Samaritan—a man from a tribe traditionally despised by the Jews, and vice versa—stops and administers aid. Placing the wounded man on his donkey, the Samaritan takes him to an inn. In this print we see the Good Samaritan paying the innkeeper for the care of the wounded traveler, who can be seen in a bed in the cellar of the building on the right.