In a parable recounted in the New Testament, Christ described how a traveller, stripped & beaten half-dead by robbers, was saved by a Samaritan, while a Priest & a Levite 'passed by on the other side' (Luke 10: 25-38). The flasks in the painting are for the oil & wine which the Samaritan pours on the traveller's wounds. The distant city is the artist's native Bassano. This work is also known in other versions.