Jesus at the House of Martha and Mary
Gustave Doré, 1866 · Luke 10:41
The passage
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
Luke 10:41
About this plate
An interior, with a doorway open to a pale sky. Christ is seated at the right. Mary sits on the floor close to him, turned up toward his face. Martha stands at the left, a little apart, one hand raised, mid-sentence.
The geometry is the story. Doré places the two sisters at opposite ends of the plate and puts the doorway — the outside, the errands, the world where the work is — directly behind Martha's shoulder. Mary has her back to it.
The verse is the reply, and it is gentler than it usually sounds when quoted. Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. Careful, in the King James, still means full of care. He is not scolding her for working. He is naming her state.
And he says her name twice, which the King James preserves and which is the whole tone of the sentence. Doré draws her still standing, still holding her point, not yet answered — and the plate does not tell you whether she sits down.
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