Victor Karl Hammer, American, born in Austria, 1882–1967, The Adulteress Before Christ, 1929–1930, egg tempera and oil on board, 55 3/4 x 39 in., Saint Vincent Archabbey Collection, Gift of Edgar Kaufmann Jr. Photo: Richard Stoner.
Victor Karl Hammer was a prolific artist whose creative output includes works of printing, painting, typography, sculpture, architecture, and calligraphy. After studying painting at Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts, Hammer established a printing studio at his alma mater in 1937. However, fearing that his press would be co-opted for Nazi propaganda, Hammer and his wife Carolyn fled to the United States–first to New York before becoming an artist-in-residence at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.
The Hammers became close friends with the Cistercian author and social justice activist, Thomas Merton. Over the course of thirteen years, the Hammers and Merton exchanged ideas and inspirations through their shared interests in art, writing, and spirituality. Captivated by the biblical story of the woman caught in adultery from John’s Gospel, Hammer describes The Adulteress Before Christ to Merton in a letter during the Fall of 1963, including an essay written in 1950 that articulated the paintings’ visual significance. Hammer sets the story on the steps of the cathedral of Siena, placing the woman gazing directly at us amongst her accuser’s tangled exchange of movements. The vertical figures of the scene are contrasted with Christ, crouched low, marking on the ground. Hammer notes:
The Hammers became close friends with the Cistercian author and social justice activist, Thomas Merton. Over the course of thirteen years, the Hammers and Merton exchanged ideas and inspirations through their shared interests in art, writing, and spirituality. Captivated by the biblical story of the woman caught in adultery from John’s Gospel, Hammer describes The Adulteress Before Christ to Merton in a letter during the Fall of 1963, including an essay written in 1950 that articulated the paintings’ visual significance. Hammer sets the story on the steps of the cathedral of Siena, placing the woman gazing directly at us amongst her accuser’s tangled exchange of movements. The vertical figures of the scene are contrasted with Christ, crouched low, marking on the ground. Hammer notes:
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“Beyond its decorative value the painting contains a message, just as Christ’s gesture of silently stooping down meant a message to be understood by the Pharisees. Christ reacts to the tempting questions of the Pharisees first by a gesture that is not understood, then, lifting himself up, He raises His voice and speaks in words. He does not dismiss the Pharisees, He asks them an indirect question which they could answer only in one mood–by turning away.” +
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Hammer’s painting provides an alternative view of a familiar story that stresses the power of forgiveness in the face of hypocritical condemnation. First exhibited at the 1930 Carnegie International, The Adulteress Before Christ was later purchased by the Pittsburgh retail magnate and philanthropist Edgar Kaufmann before being gifted to Saint Vincent by his son, Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., in 1977.
+ Scutchfield, F. Douglas and Paul Evans Holbrook Jr., ed. with assistance from Leah Casanave; forward by Paul M. Pearson. The Letters of Thomas Merton and Victor and Carolyn Hammer: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (Lexington: The University of Kentucky, 2014), 180.
