The parable of the Good Samaritan is unique to the Gospel of St. Luke (Luke 10:30–37) and was told by Jesus in response to the question: “And who is my neighbor?” Francis Hayman depicts the Good Samaritan tending to the wounds of a stranger on the road to Jericho while a priest and a Levite pass him by. William Wrightson, a member of Parliament, commissioned it as an altarpiece for a new chapel at Cusworth Hall, his house near Doncaster then being extensively remodeled. Wrightson was consequently a very unusual patron since devotional pictures were rare in Britain after the Protestant Reformation and, unlike Italy or France, few churches and chapels in Britain were adorned with altarpieces. Hayman was Wrightson’s natural choice because by 1750 he had established himself as the leading history painter in Britain and was defiantly British, although strongly influenced by the latest French painting. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016